2003:1707 - BURNCOURT: Burncourt Castle, Tipperary

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Tipperary Site name: BURNCOURT: Burncourt Castle

Sites and Monuments Record No.: TS080-004001- Licence number: 03E1909

Author: Rose M. Cleary, Department of Archaeology, University College Cork

Site type: House - fortified house

Period/Dating: Post Medieval (AD 1600-AD 1750)

ITM: E 595192m, N 618177m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.315207, -8.070517

Excavation was undertaken in advance of remedial works at Burncourt Castle. The castle is a 17th-century fortified house, built by Sir Richard Everard and first occupied in 1641. It was burnt by either Cromwell or by Lady Everard in 1649.

A sketch plan by OPW staff in 1929 showed a cellar accessed by steps. The excavation confirmed this and most of the north-east floor area of the cellar was exposed. The cellar had been filled with up to 1.5m of stones in the past 50 years; this fill was removed to expose the paved cellar floor. A functioning drain was also exposed. Cellar steps leading from the east wall were uncovered. An internal east-west wall facing was exposed but not fully investigated. A stone structure, similar to a flue, was also exposed.