1999:841 - NEWTOWNSTEWART CASTLE, Newtownstewart, Tyrone

A research excavation was undertaken at Newtownstewart Castle to ascertain the level of survival of masonry remains before the opening of the castle to the public and in tandem with ongoing conservation work.

Newtownstewart is about halfway between Omagh and Strabane on the main road between Dublin and Derry. The Environment and Heritage Service acquired the castle, which is within the Newtownstewart Conservation Area, several years ago, and an adjacent grocery shop was subsequently demolished.

The castle was built by Sir Robert Newcomen in the early 17th century, on lands granted to him in the Ulster Plantation. The area had previously been controlled by the O'Neills, and the well-known 14th-century monument known as Harry Avery's Castle (after Henry Aimbreidh O'Neill) is three-quarters of a mile to the south-west of the town. Another early O'Neill castle, Turlough O'Neill's Castle, was reputed to have previously occupied the site of Newtownstewart Castle, but no evidence of any earlier fortification was uncovered.

By 1628 the castle passed into the hands of the Stewart family through marriage (which is how it got its name). It was attacked during the 1641 Rebellion but was later repaired and continued in use until 1689. In this year King James II stayed in the castle before and after the failed Siege of Derry. On his retreat back to Dublin he had both the castle and the town burnt. The town was rebuilt in the 1720s, but the castle was never repaired. In recent centuries the site of the castle was used as a market and store, and an internal, arched market wall has been retained to show this period of the castle's history.

Only the western, northern and fragments of the southern internal dividing walls of the castle survive to their full height above ground. The western gable is distinctive in having a triple crow-stepped gable, the middle one of which is surmounted by an eight-sided star-shaped red brick chimney, a mixture of Scottish and English Plantation architecture. The northern wall contains a projecting circular stair tower and, at the north-east corner, a square flanker with two gun-loops and a doorway with sandstone quoins. The castle originally consisted of three floors and a basement. It was at basement level that the excavation took place.

Seven trenches were opened around the castle, and approximately 70% of the area within the monument was excavated to subsoil levels (gravel and clay). As expected, the stratigraphy consisted mostly of dumped layers of rubble, brick and stone, post-dating the destruction of the castle. There was much evidence of masonry having been robbed out, possibly providing some of the stone used to rebuild Newtownstewart in the 18th century. At basement level there may have been a flagged floor, but the only parts discovered lay under a large fragment of collapsed masonry.

However, substantial sections of the castle survived intact below ground. The excavation uncovered the full extent of the south wall and much of the east wall, some of which had been completely robbed out earlier this century. A previously unknown doorway in the east wall was discovered, as well as a 7m stretch of the bawn wall, running southwards from the south-eastern corner of the castle.

Cut into the subsoil within the castle were internal slots and post-holes, which would have originally held wooden walls and beams. Pottery, clay pipes, roof and wall tiles, window leading and glass from the 17th and succeeding centuries were retrieved from the excavation. Most importantly, the excavation uncovered evidence of at least two phases of castle construction. It appears that in its earliest form the north wall simply had a centrally placed projecting stair tower and battered north-west corner wall. Excavation proved that at a later stage (after 1641?) a flanker was added to the north-west corner to improve defences.

Also uncovered during the excavation was an Early Bronze Age segmented long cist burial, contained in an oval grave pit cut into the subsoil. This was found c. 7m west of the junction of the southern and western walls of the castle, close to the current site entrance. The survival of the grave is remarkable, as it lay within the foundations of the now-demolished shop. Less than twenty of these Bronze Age burials have been found to date in the whole of Ireland.

The cist comprised two chambers, each containing the cremated remains of a single individual and a highly decorated food vessel. Analysis of the cremated remains by Eileen Murphy revealed that they were of a juvenile of 12–15 years and a woman in her 40s or 50s. With the cremated remains of the juvenile was a burnt, hollow-base, flint arrowhead. Whether this was the cause of death or a treasured artefact buried with the individual is as yet unknown.

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