County: Galway Site name: Claregalway Castle, Claregalway
Sites and Monuments Record No.: - Licence number: 06E0203
Author: Billy Quinn, Moore Archaeological & Environmental Services Ltd, Corporate House, Ballybrit Business Park, Ballybrit, Galway.
Site type: Exterior of castle
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 537275m, N 733314m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.346330, -8.942015
Testing was carried out between 15 and 21 March 2006 at the exterior of Claregalway Castle. The proposed development involves the restoration of a tower-house and ancillary buildings and the construction of an adjacent dwelling house as part of a complex. The trenches were sited to identify the course of the original bawn wall, a section of which had previously been exposed near the roadside.
Excavations to the exterior of the existing inner compound exposed a number of wall foundations, an anomalous masonry spread and a metalled yard area. These features for the most part confirm the accuracy of the 1838 6-inch OS sheet. The expanded testing regime confirmed the location of a large rectangular building that ran alongside the riverbank. This building functioned as a mill-house and measured c. 19m by 9m. Extending from the north-western corner of this building was a boundary wall running westwards to the Galway–Tuam roadway. This boundary wall is featured on the first-edition OS map. Excavation partially exposed a road leading to a gateway along this wall. Neither of these features appears on the early map and accordingly they date at the latest from the late 18th to early 19th century. This boundary wall, which may be an outer bawn, survives in poor condition towards its eastern terminal. A further examination of this wall to determine its date and establish its true relationship with the square building would be valuable.
