1998:635 - DUNGARVAN CASTLE, Dungarvan, Waterford

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Waterford Site name: DUNGARVAN CASTLE, Dungarvan

Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 95E0080

Author: Dave Pollock

Site type: Castle - Anglo-Norman masonry castle

Period/Dating: Multi-period

ITM: E 626298m, N 593076m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.088981, -7.616245

During May and June 1998, in the fourth season of excavations ahead of consolidation, funded by the National Monuments Service, a piece of ground between the shell keep and the north curtain wall was taken down to the 16th/17th-century ground level to investigate the site of two possible towers. The sally-port or watergate in the wall of the shell keep was also investigated.

A ditch between the keep and the curtain wall was largely infilled by the 16th century; in the 16th or 17th century the remaining hollow immediately outside the main entrance to the keep was further infilled and the fill revetted with a clay-bonded wall. Beyond the revetment wall the battered base of the keep was blanketed with a layer of rubble and clay, a deliberate artillery protection matched by a similar rampart on the inside (uncovered in 1997). Traces of buildings were found in the disturbed ground inside the north curtain wall. A door in the curtain was inserted or rebuilt, probably in the 1640s, and provided with a flanking tower. The curtain wall was mined from the inside and exploded at the end of the 17th century. Shortly after barracks were built the curtain was reconstructed (as a thin wall) and the ground level was raised considerably.

The high tower shown on a late 17th-century watercolour of Dungarvan was never built against the keep. It may have been freestanding, but this is unlikely. It is matched exactly by a tower attached to the keep at Cardiff Castle; its presence on the Dungarvan picture is a mystery.

The presence of a second tower, a suspected medieval terminal on the north curtain wall, could not be ascertained. Medieval stonework did not survive at 16th-century ground level, owing to 17th-century rebuilding and late 17th-century demolition. Furthermore, in the crucial area, damage from 18th- and 19th-century drains threatened the stability of the thin 18th-century curtain wall standing above. For safety reasons excavation was not taken further.

33 Woodlawn, Cashel, Co. Tipperary