County: Dublin Site name: CARRICKMINES CASTLE, Carrickmines Great
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 26:5 Licence number: 00E0525
Author: Mark Clinton for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd.
Site type: Castle - unclassified
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 721272m, N 723411m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.247204, -6.182852
Excavation commenced in late August 2000. Work is scheduled to proceed throughout most or all of 2001.
The excavation of a two-fosse/two-bank configuration along the north-western flank of the site is in progress.
To the south-east of the inner castle area a hitherto unknown medieval stone-revetted fosse is being uncovered. To date, this feature (undoubtedly the southern curtain-wall) has been exposed for 25m. The maximum surviving height attained by the free-standing element of the revetment/wall is 2m (the segment in question having been preserved in a roadside ditch).
The remains of a two-phase building (late and post-medieval) are also being excavated (sited towards the north of the castle area). The presence of three worked stones (including an element of an ogee window), reutilised in a casual fashion in the later phase, would suggest that the original late medieval building was of a high status.
Considerable quantities of late 13th/early 14th-century pottery have been retrieved.
There are also emerging indications of extensive medieval activity to the south of the castle area.
Brehon House, Kilkenny Road, Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny
