County: Wexford Site name: HOOK LIGHTHOUSE, Hook Head
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 99E0020 and ext.
Author: Alan Hayden, Archaeological Projects Ltd.
Site type: Lighthouse
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 673304m, N 597866m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.127800, -6.929384
Eight trenches were opened by mechanical excavator at Hook Lighthouse, Hook Head, Churchtown, Co. Wexford, in April 1999 before the development of the modern lighthouse keepers' houses into a heritage centre. They revealed the survival of a stone-walled enclosure around the lighthouse as depicted on 17th-century drawings. A thin deposit of brown clay overlay subsoil within the enclosure. It contained medieval pottery. A shallow pit containing sherds of Ham Green ware and a piece of Dundrystone was also uncovered within the enclosure.
Work was undertaken in conjunction with Ben Murtagh, who carried out an architectural survey of the fabric of the medieval lighthouse.
Monitoring of the construction of the development was undertaken in September. None of the foundation trenches was deep enough to encounter medieval deposits, and only a few sherds of North Devon gravel-tempered ware vessels were uncovered.
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