2001:324 - BREMORE, Balbriggan, Dublin

Excavation of an area adjacent to the site of Bremore Castle (see Excavations 2001, No. 323) commenced in April 2001 in advance of a large-scale housing development to the north of a medieval complex. The site consists of a large open field covering approximately 4.5ha, the eastern quarter of which is to remain as parkland. The castle lies immediately to the south, surrounded by a number of modern farm buildings, and is currently being restored. The modern N1 road borders the field to the west, and a lane running from this road to the castle yard forms the field’s southern boundary. The sea lies 300m to the east.

Excavation concentrated on the southern third of the field, adjacent to the castle and laneway, where pre-development testing had identified the greatest density of archaeology. Excavation was subject to time constraints so a series of separate cuttings were excavated by hand to sample the depth and scale of archaeological deposits. A total area of 1250m2 was covered. Significant amounts of archaeological material were exposed.

Part of a medieval field system was uncovered. Two parallel ditches extending for at least 150m east–west across the field and 50m apart, at a slight angle to the existing lane, formed the borders. Little evidence for cultivation was detected north of the area, but at some stage post-medieval drains had replaced the ditches. This narrow plot had been densely cultivated and contained a number of separate furrow systems, running both parallel and perpendicular to the ditches, suggesting that it had been a defined area of cultivation from the medieval period onwards.

To the south of this area, between the southern ditch and the existing laneway, a number of features of medieval and post-medieval date were exposed. A regular metalled surface formed of compacted small stones was uncovered, apparently the remnants of a path or laneway. This ran parallel to the two ditches, close to the modern laneway leading to the castle, suggesting that it was the original path which had been replaced by the extant path to the south. Two Elizabethan coins dating from 1601–2 were recovered from separate points within the surface.
Closer to the castle a pit was excavated, contemporary with the cobbling and containing a large amount of late medieval pottery. A second pit excavated adjacent to the southern ditch also contained a large quantity of medieval pottery and a handsome slate sundial, possibly unfinished, of late medieval date. The possible footprint of a small structure, of either medieval or early post-medieval date, was also exposed in the vicinity, between these two pits.

A number of features of post-medieval date were uncovered. A mortared stone wall with an associated stone drain and cobbled surface lay over one of the pits. As mentioned above, post-medieval drains appeared to have replaced the original medieval ditches bounding the cultivation area. Atop a bank adjacent to the southern ditch the trench of a destroyed boundary wall was exposed. A number of pits and large irregular cuts of indeterminate function were also exposed adjacent to the southern boundary of the site, with concentrations of brick, rubble, mortar and slate in the area closest to the castle, some of which may have represented debris from the castle’s destruction. Closer to the modern road a concentration of slag and iron-rich soil was exposed in a post-medieval context, suggesting a small-scale industrial site.

The pottery from the site totalled approximately 4000 sherds. The majority of this pottery was late medieval in date, with a very large proportion of Leinster Cooking Ware. The assemblage included a broad sample of post-medieval wares, including ridge tiles of North Devon Ware which may have originally been attached to the castle.

On the basis of a preliminary examination of the pottery, other associated finds and the evidence of excavation, there appears to have been intensive activity associated with the use of the castle in the late medieval period and extending into the early post-medieval period, before a possible hiatus. Cultivation appears to have taken place in the enclosed ‘plot’, and the field system may have extended across the present N1 road, joining to a lane known locally as Hamlet lane which runs along the same east–west axis as the southern ditch.

Post-medieval activity was also extensive but does not appear to have taken the form of extensive regular cultivation. The material evidence would appear to broadly match with the historical evidence, in which Bremore is described as a Barnewall holding from the 14th century onwards, and as a manorial seat of a branch of the Barnewall family in the 16th and 17th centuries. Historical sources from this period also mention an ‘orchard and parke’, and Rocque’s map dating from 1756 shows a narrow band of trees directly to the north of the laneway leading to the castle. These may have been planted at the end of the period of cultivation, creating a gap in the stratigraphic record.

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