County: Louth Site name: DROGHEDA: Millmount
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 24:25 Licence number: 98E0194
Author: Donald Murphy, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd.
Site type: Castle - motte and bailey and Martello tower
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 708934m, N 774799m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.711498, -6.349818
A second phase of work was undertaken at Millmount, Drogheda, during the restoration and refurbishment of the Martello tower (see Excavations 1998, 144, for first season's report). Monitoring was conducted in August of the mechanical removal of 0.6m of earth from the top of the mound. A dark brown, rubbly loam containing early 20th-century finds was exposed directly below the sod and is clearly associated with the destruction of the Martello tower during the Civil War. Five substantial, bonded stone walls, c. 0.6m wide, were exposed below this layer radiating outwards from the base of the tower and were found in association with a number of beam-slots along the lower footing of the tower. These were clearly the supporting walls for a suspended wooden floor or decking that surrounded the tower. The remains of a small square structure were exposed to the south-west of the tower, which may be the remains of a sighting/ viewing platform that was used for artillery ranging. No archaeological stratigraphy or deposits were revealed that pre-dated the construction of the Martello tower.
15 Trinity Street, Drogheda, Co. Louth
