County: Cork Site name: CARRIGANASS: Carriganass Castle
Sites and Monuments Record No.: CO106-001 Licence number: 04E1386
Author: Jacinta Kiely, Eachtra Archaeological Projects
Site type: Castle - tower house
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 504720m, N 556715m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.754655, -9.380086
Carriganass Castle is located on a rock outcrop on the northern bank of the Ouvane River. The castle is situated within a rectangular bawn, with a flanking tower at each corner. About half the castle survives, mainly the northern and western walls and a short return of the south wall. The eastern portion of the castle has collapsed. A programme of repair and consolidation work has been underway at Carriganass Castle since 2001. Two test-trenches were excavated in 2002 (Excavations 2002, No. 249, 02E1546) in the area of the south-west and northwest return of the west wall of the tower-house. They were excavated to find a solid platform or the foundations of the wall in order that the stonemasons could stabilise the corners of the west wall.
In 2004 a test-trench was excavated by hand in the area of the ground floor ope of the west wall of the tower-house to find a solid platform or the foundations of the wall in order that the stonemasons could stabilise the embrasure. The base of the ground-floor ope had been destroyed in antiquity, possibly to allow access to the farm buildings abutting the bawn wall. A thin cover of soil had accumulated on the basal stones of the west wall. The trench measured c. 1.5m north-south on the exterior by 2m on the interior. The wall is 2.2m deep. The base of the wall was a mix of stone and bedrock. The stones were roughly hewn sandstone and were the same size and style as those visible on the remaining walls of the tower-house.
The wall of the castle was built directly on bedrock. No archaeological features or artefacts were recorded in the trench.
Ballycurreen Industrial Estate, Kinsale Road, Cork
