2006:546 - NEWRY: Bagenal’s Castle, Down

Excavation was undertaken as part of the restoration and redevelopment of Bagenal’s Castle tower-house and the McCann’s Bakery building for use as the new Newry Museum on behalf of Newry and Mourne District Council. The excavation identified, immediately north of the tower-house, the wall foundations of a formerly demolished medieval building(s), almost certainly part of the Cistercian abbey precinct. Above these foundations were 33 inhumations and an amount of disarticulated human bone, including nine skulls. The remains of wooden coffins were identified in some of the burials and the cemetery could be dated, by radiocarbon dating and other means, to between 1552 and 1660. This cemetery was contemporary with the tower-house and the individuals clearly had some connection with the Bagenals. At least 3, possibly 4, of the individuals had suffered violent death in battle, including one individual with evidence of ten probable sword wounds to back of the head, and these remains may well have been of Bagenal’s retainers. Although this was a period of almost incessant conflict, two possible battle candidates are O’Neill’s seizure of the tower-house in 1565 and the Battle of Yellow Ford in 1598.

Work within the tower-house included the removal of the modern blocking of features such as windows, doorways and fireplaces. A discovery of note was a large bread oven found in the south ground-floor fireplace. Identified in the east wall foundations was a well-dressed stone jamb from an earlier building, reused in the rubble foundations. The standing remains of the tower-house were of two phases, with the lower portion of the north wall a distinct, earlier build. The building survey evidence allied with historical references clearly suggests that Nicholas Bagenal built his tower-house within the standing remains of an earlier building that was almost certainly part of the Cistercian abbey.

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