County: Westmeath Site name: TYRELLSPASS CASTLE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 05E0234
Author: Rosanne Meenan, Roestown, Drumree, Co. Meath.
Site type: Tower-house
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 641543m, N 737903m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.389660, -7.375466
The owner of Tyrellspass Castle applied for planning permission to construct a function room as an extension to existing hotel and restaurant facilities at the castle.
The site comprises a tower-house (SMR 39:1), with modern additions, enclosed by a stone wall on the north and east sides.
Nine trenches tested the various elements of the proposed development. Four of them were inside the courtyard; i.e. inside the area enclosed by a modern enclosing wall and by modern restaurant buildings. These trenches confirmed that modern fill had been brought in, possibly during the 1970s, to raise the level of the courtyard.
The remaining five trenches were excavated outside the castle and restaurant buildings. The trenches to the west were cut through a deep layer of gravel and some rubbish, deposited in 2003 or 2004. The trenches in the south and south-west produced evidence for a modern soak hole and for other recent activity.
No features of archaeological interest were exposed in the trenches and no archaeological artefacts were recovered.
