2004:1569 - BURNCOURT CASTLE, Tipperary

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. The castle 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 cellar had been filled with up to 1.5m of stones in the past 50 years and this fill was removed to expose the paved cellar floor. The cellar floor was cobbled with well-set cobblestones of irregular sizes. The area of the cellar was 71.6m2. It was clear from the removal of fill that the cellar area must have been cleaned out after the castle was burnt in 1650. The castle was abandoned after the fire and this suggests that it was considered beyond repair, either due to financial considerations or because of structural damage. The fire probably resulted in the collapse of the inner structural timbers and the roof must have partially or fully caved in. There were no remains of any material in the cellar that could be associated with the fire of 1650 and it can only be assumed that any debris from the castle burning, including roof slates and lead flashings, were salvaged for use elsewhere. The cost of slates in the 17th century may have been an incentive to salvage the slate from the site. A few fragments of slate were recovered from the infill of the cellar, from the interstices of the cobbled cellar floor and from the backfill of a drain trench.

The original cellar height was c. 2.37m and this suggests that it was a large room. The floor was cobbled and an adverse camber in the cobbling functioned as a drain to collect water and carry it to an ope at the base of the east wall. The excavation in 2004 uncovered the remains of a drain that exists to the south of the cellar below the ground-floor level and exits through an ope in the south cellar wall. This drain links to the drain across the cellar floor. The drainage system also extends at the north of the building and the camber in the cellar floor cobbling extends to the north-west tower. The drain network was integral to the construction phase of the castle.

Steps led into the cellar from the south side of the central block and the south cellar wall extended westwards from the steps. This wall was not a freestanding structure, as it abutted boulder clay levels and was in fact a stone facing. The cellar occupied only the north end of the central block of the castle. A test-trench on the south side of the central block adjacent to the west wall confirmed that there was no cellar in that area.

A stone feature, morphologically similar to a limekiln, was recorded to the south of the cellar wall. The central chamber can be interpreted as the bowl of the kiln and the splayed areas to the east and west may have functioned as the flues/rakeouts. The west end of the central chamber had a lintel supported on the flue wall and a similar lintel may have existed on the east side of the chamber. This end of the chamber and the adjacent north wall of the flue were not intact and stone may have been robbed from this part of the structure. Fire-reddened soil was removed from the central chamber and this also extended towards the north across to the south cellar wall. This soil may be interpreted as residue from burning at the kiln site. Some of the fire-reddened soil was initially interpreted as resulting from the burning of the castle in 1650, but the probability is that it originated from the limekiln. No lime was recovered from the bowl area, but thin lime lenses were spread on the east and west side of the structure. These may be the vestiges of lime rake-out. The side stones of the chamber area did not exhibit evidence of intensive burning in terms of cracking or fragmentation of the walls. An explanation for this may be that the kiln was only in use for a short period, whereas only long-term, intensive use would result in cracking of the stonewall face. A similar limekiln was excavated at Trim Castle by David Sweetman and that kiln was dated to the 17th century.

Limekilns were used to produce quicklime, whereby, when heated, calcium carbonate in limestone converts to calcium oxide or quicklime. Quicklime was used for buildings as a bonding agent in render, in whitewash and as a fertiliser. Lime-based mortar was also used for bonding stone courses. The location of a limekiln within the precincts of the castle is unusual. It is possible that the kiln was in use during the construction phase of the castle when the stonework was being laid. An on-site kiln could have provided a ready supply of lime-based mortar and the bonding agent for render. Once the main stonework in the castle was completed, the kiln could have been abandoned and filled in. The top of the limekiln (lintel stone over the chamber/flue junction) was c. 1m below the estimated floor level and, if it had been in use when the stonework for the castle was being laid, the kiln must have been filled in prior to the construction of the ground-floor woodwork. The limekiln may, however, post-date the castle abandonment in 1650.

Finds from the site were, in the main, modern and included 20th-century pottery and corroded iron. One fragment of German stoneware and a fragment of internally green-glazed earthenware were recovered from the infill of the cellar. A sherd of locally made late 13th-century pottery from the area around the stone structure is residual.