1999:405 - MAYNOOTH CASTLE, Maynooth, Kildare

Excavation of the whole of the interior of the late 12th-century keep was undertaken for Dúchas The Heritage Service, from October to December, before the development of the ground floor as an exhibition space. Archaeological assessment of the site had been undertaken in 1996 (Excavations 1996, 52). Post-excavation work is ongoing at the time of writing, and the results of carbon dating of the earliest phases of activity uncovered are awaited. Seven main phases of occupation of the site were evidenced.

Part of a rectangular prehistoric building was the stratigraphically earliest structure uncovered. No finds were associated with it; however, a stone axehead and unfinished macehead, as well as a number of waste flakes of flint, were uncovered in early medieval contexts and may derive from the structure.

At least two small post-and-wattle round houses, each c. 5m in diameter, were constructed over the prehistoric remains and are probably of early medieval date. No datable finds were recovered from them, but excellent carbon samples were retrieved from their hearths and post-holes. The latest of the round houses appears to have had a curving wooden stockade added to one side of it. The house would appear to be contemporary with the beginning of the cultivation of the site, which was evidenced by regularly spaced shallow furrows. The cultivation later overwhelmed the house and continued until the arrival of the Anglo-Normans.

The site appears to have fallen into Norman hands in around 1175. The remains of a mound of sod c. 1m high were uncovered dating to the beginning of the Anglo-Norman occupation. The remains of a rectangular post-and-wattle building survived on top of the mound, which was delimited by a stout wooden fence with an entrance in its east side. An arrowhead, an iron spur and a scabbard chape were amongst the finds from this level. Pottery consisted of Ham Green ware. It is not clear into what category of site the settlement fits.

The initial construction of the stone keep, probably in the late 1180s, was evidenced by thick mortar slicks. The original keep was divided into two rooms by three piers that supported the first floor.

The ground floor of the castle was radically altered, most likely in the early 15th century. The ground floor was roofed with two wicker-centred barrel vaults, which were supported on a new spine wall that linked the older internal piers. A second mortar slick and the sockets of timber supports for the arch centring marked this activity. A well was found in the west half of the keep. It was infilled, possibly when the ground floor was altered, and another was opened in the western half of the keep. The keep continued to be occupied until the 16th century, when it fell in the Silken Thomas Rebellion and was badly damaged.

Slight evidence of the reoccupation of the castle in the 17th century was uncovered.

In the 18th and 19th centuries the keep was again reused, but this time one half of the ground floor was used to store coal. The eastern doorway was blocked up (the outside of the keep being used as a handball alley), and a new doorway was opened in its western wall. A stone staircase was built and led, via a breach in the vaulting, up to the first floor.

A good assemblage of medieval pottery (including several largely complete jugs) and wooden objects (the latter from the well) were uncovered. The animal, bird and fish bone assemblages would appear to be of interest as they include fallow deer from the deer park as well as immature seal bones and other oddities.

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