County: Dublin Site name: Mill Lane, Shanganagh
Sites and Monuments Record No.: DU022–010 Licence number: 06E0794
Author: Franc Myles, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd, 27 Merrion Square, Dublin 2.
Site type: Testing
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 725447m, N 722019m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.233733, -6.120877
An assessment connected with the proposed development of a currently vacant site, just to the south of Shanganagh Castle, was undertaken in August. The development site is within the constraint circle of the tower-house and is near the site of a watermill (DU026–031(02)) adjacent to the castle to the north-east.
The site is located between Loughlinstown and Shankill villages and enclosed on three sides by modern housing developments. Immediately to the north are the ruins of Shanganagh Castle, while the large mature gardens of Barnclose House extend to the east. The site was c. 0.5 of an acre in extent and occupied by mature vegetation, waste ground and several agricultural sheds and other smaller structures.
The castle was described in 1654 as having two orchards, a garden, a grove of ash trees set for ornament and a mill. The thatched castle burned down in 1783 according to Ball (1905, 89) and was subsequently used as a barn. It is depicted on an 1810 watercolour by William Westall as a picturesque roofless ruin set in a rural landscape on a gentle slope extending down to the sea. A sketch of the castle by Charles Pratt records its further partial demolition in 1835, and the stones being carted off to be reused in the construction of local cabins.
The testing formed part of an assessment of the site to inform any proposed scheme in relation to its archaeological heritage potential. Four test-trenches were opened and natural deposits were found to extend directly under the surface, with the exception of one area where a 19th-century metalled surface was recorded.
The results of the assessment were somewhat disappointing, as one would have expected there to be some evidence for occupation associated with the castle over the area. At the same time, it did not appear to the writer that substantial truncation of archaeological features had occurred. It remains likely therefore that the walls enclosing the assessment area post-date the occupation of the castle and that that side of the monument was undeveloped during the medieval period.
Reference
Ball, F.E. 1905 A history of the County of Dublin: The people, parishes and antiquities from the earliest times to the close of the eighteenth century, Vol. III. Dublin.
