2005:546 - ENNISKILLEN: Enniskillen Castle Barracks, Fermanagh

Monitoring was undertaken on 31 August and 1 September 2005 at the Barrack Coach House, within Enniskillen Castle Barracks. The Professional Services Division of the Central Procurement Directorate of Environment and Heritage Service: Built Heritage were in the process of drawing up designs for the refurbishment and reuse of the building and required information relating to the existing floors and their foundations.

The history of the Barrack Coach House has recently been summarised by Gormley (2004, 14). Located in the north-east corner of the castle complex, the building was constructed in 1881 (over an area that had hitherto been used as a ball-court) and a western extension had been added by 1905. During this time it operated as an equipment store, but by 1922 it was being used as a garage for motorised vehicles. The building was refurbished as office space in 1965 and housed the Western Health and Social Services Board until 1999. Since 1999 it has been vacant, although a programme of external repairs was undertaken by the Environment and Heritage Service in 2002.

Trench A, 1m north–south by 1.5m, was located along the pathway next the external southern façade of the building’s extension, which was constructed by 1905. The ground floor of the extension area was once open-plan, with the first-floor level supported on three rows of cast-iron pillars, each of which was surrounded by a cast-iron vehicle kerb embedded in concrete; these vehicle kerbs were presumably added to provide protection to the pillars when the extension area was in use as a garage. The openings between the pillars had been closed up during the 1965 refurbishment of the building, when the ground-floor area was redesigned as office space. The excavation centred on the area surrounding Pillar 1(iv), set along the external southern façade.

The uppermost layer encountered was of concrete, 0.15–0.25m in thickness and positioned underneath the pathway’s concrete flagstones. Underlying the concrete deposit was a thick mortar-rich layer of brown clay, 0.3–0.35m in thickness, containing concrete pieces and a modern metal scaffolding brace; it can be suggested that these layers were deposited during the refurbishment of the building in 1965. Underlying the brown clay was a friable brown clay layer, with a maximum depth of 0.2m, which contained fragments of red brick and covered a ceramic sewage pipe, running from east to west and set in a bed of concrete, that occupied the southern half of the trench. The northern half of the trench contained brown clay and, when removed, this revealed a cobbled surface at a depth of 0.85m, at which point the excavation was terminated. It is probable that this surface represents either the 18th-century barrack yard or the ball-court over which the building’s extension had been constructed by 1905.

A further three intrusive investigations were monitored within the interior of the building. Trench B was a small 0.6m by 0.6m opening located midway along the interior east gable wall to the front of an inserted red-brick insulating wall probably constructed during the 1965 refurbishment of the building. The excavation cut through a 0.1m-thick layer of cement and a layer of concrete c. 0.15m thick to reveal a 0.1m-thick foundation raft of stones and brown clay (C203), which was positioned over a second, more heavily compacted, foundation raft of stones (C204) embedded in a matrix of brown clay containing rotted mortar and fragments of red brick. The upper surface of a large boulder was revealed within this foundation raft. The excavation of C204 terminated at a depth of 0.05m and it can be suggested that both C203 and C204 were deposited to provide a foundation for the concrete floor inserted in 1965.

At Trench C a core sample of concrete was bored from the modern floor, while Trench D was positioned to the western side of Pillar 2(v) and represented a rough-cut hole, some 0.6m by 0.6m, cut through the concrete floor. There was a cement skim, 20mm thick, overlying a thin layer of cement, 30mm thick, that was positioned over a 0.17m-thick layer of gravel concrete (C303). Underlying C303 was a second concrete layer, c. 0.15m thick, that was set over a foundation raft of rubble (C305). The excavation of C305 terminated at a depth of 0.15m. As is the situation regarding the foundation rafts encountered in Trench B, it can be suggested that this raft of rubble was set down in 1965 to provide a foundation for the concrete floor inserted into the building during the refurbishment programme undertaken at that time.

Reference
Gormley, M. 2004 Enniskillen Castle conservation statement, incorporating a management statement. Unpublished report prepared on behalf of the Environment and Heritage Service.

School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen’s University, Belfast, BT7 1NN