2005:1352 - TULSK, Roscommon

A second season of excavation was carried out in 2005 on the raised earthwork at Tulsk, as part of the Discovery Programme’s Medieval Rural Settlement Project (2002–8), which in this instance is considering the nature of Gaelic lordship in the later medieval period (see Excavations 2004, No. 1484, for a report on the first season).

The existing primary cutting was extended to 55m in length, to run across the full interior of the mound and to extend across the fosse on the east side. A smaller cutting was opened along the north-east slope.

The purpose of the excavation is to assess the extent to which this site might retain significant levels relating to the transition between the early and later medieval periods, namely the later 12th–13th century, and to inform the nature of Gaelic lordly settlement in what has remained a period that is difficult to ‘see’ in the more general study of later medieval Ireland. The recovery of a ring-pin brooch from the 10th–11th century during this season supports the contention that the ‘less than visible’ levels will emerge in time. At present, the excavation programme has exposed two significant later phases of occupation on the site. At the very upper level of activity is an assemblage of small finds and associated structures that are late 16th-century in date, and are considered to reflect the presence of Sir Richard Bingham when he was garrisoning Tulsk in his office of Queen Elizabeth I’s Governor to Connacht.

The construction of a large stone tower, perhaps at the end of the 14th century, in turn reveals an earlier and still more central role for the site within the local community. Excavation in the eastern half of the mound revealed the remains of a rectangular building, measuring c. 20m long by 10m wide. The external wall is c. 3m thick and retains a battered or sloping profile along its base. A garderobe, or latrine, chute is recessed into it. Further excavations are planned for 2006.

34 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2