2006:1233 - ADARE: Adare Castle, Limerick

In August 2006, a programme of works was undertaken at Adare Castle, Co. Limerick, on behalf of the National Monuments Section of the Department Environment, Heritage & Local Government in collaboration with the Office of Public Works. Six areas were identified for archaeological investigation, as well as monitoring of the removal of a bund of material.

Monitoring was undertaken of the removal of a linear bund of material, constructed from material dredged from the bed of the River Maigue, which runs immediately adjacent to the southern wall of the castle complex. The bund was constructed in 1975 to help prevent seasonal flooding from the river into the castle grounds. Several sherds of medieval pottery were recovered from the bund in the past. Following the monitoring, the bund material was spread and examined by hand and metal detector to determine its artefact-bearing potential. No significant finds were recovered.

Minor cleaning and revealing works were undertaken at the entrance to and within the north-west corner of the Early Hall. There are two halls at Adare, with the second one referred to as the Great Hall, or Halla Mór. A cobbled surface composed of small to medium-sized limestone stones was revealed as well as two limestone ‘threshold’ stones. It is very likely that these features relate to the 19th-century renovation works undertaken by Lord Dunraven. Within the interior of the Early Hall, a small triangular area of roughly set cobbles was excavated. This cobbled surface overlay a blackish-brown silty clay with frequent limestone stone inclusions, similar to the cobbles removed above it. Subsequent removal revealed a dark-orange silty clay subsoil beneath which several small areas of in situ burning were evident. Five stake-holes were excavated, both within and nearby to these patches of burning, and it is safe to assume that the features are contemporaneous.

The Great Hall is situated immediately east of the Early Hall and extends along the bank of the river. A mid-19th-century plan by Dunraven denotes four structural column pads within the building indicative of an aisled hall construct. Subsequent to the removal of the linear bund material in the Great Hall, the sod which covered the remainder of the interior was entirely removed. Cleaning within the entrance into the hall revealed a cobbled entranceway, while removal of the sod from the floor of the Great Hall uncovered a very rough, uneven chipped stone surface throughout that was laid down by Lord Dunraven around the 1860s. Four box-sections were excavated at specific locations to reveal the possible column pads mapped by Dunraven. Three were recorded, while nothing had survived of the fourth, which was originally located in the south-west. Two opposing additional column pads were uncovered at the eastern limits of the Great Hall more or less equidistant from the others. The limestone pads were generally manifest as two or more large limestone slabs.

A small river gate leads directly into the Great Hall on the southern wall directly opposite the entranceway. This area was partially excavated prior to the construction of a wall, designed to prevent the river flooding the Great Hall. The excavation works revealed a previously unknown substantial wall, 1.5m in width and revealed to a depth of 0.3m. This possible curtain wall is oriented north–south and was revealed for a length of 2m throughout the cutting. Its full extent and morphology was therefore not determined. This is a substantial construction and may well reflect the original line of a bawn wall that pre-dates the construction of the Great Hall.

A second continuous wall feature was revealed extending along the interior of three sides of the Great Hall, parallel to and against the northern, western and southern walls. It was revealed to an average height of 0.2m and 0.4m in width and generally corresponds to an inner lining of the hall similar but less obvious to that in the smaller Early Hall. Apart from cleaning and exposing the features identified above, no substantive excavations were undertaken within the Great Hall.

Cleaning was also undertaken in the ancillary building abutting the Great Hall at the south-east and known as the buttery. No features were recorded, although several sherds of medieval Adare ware were recovered.

A further possible landing river gate area abuts the east gable of the so-called buttery. This was reduced to reveal the footings or basal courses of the outer wall. Bisecting this area, running north–south, was a stone-lined drain with slabbed lintels, measuring 0.5m in width and 0.3m in depth. It extended for 10m and issued into the river.

The south-east corner area of the outer ward was reduced by hand to try and locate a possible oven and other structural features denoted on Dunraven’s layout plan of 1865. Previous work in this area in 2004 (Excavations 2004, No. 967) revealed the basal courses of a destroyed section of curtain wall, an interior wall and a stone-lined well that was partially accommodated into the outer curtain wall. Removal of the modern overburden material revealed a possible corn-drying kiln which Dunraven mistakenly identified as an oven. The kiln, on its eastern side, abutted and was accommodated into a north–south wall which formed the eastern extent of some unknown ancillary domestic building. The flue was aligned east–west and was shorter in length on the northern side, where it measured 1.4m, while the southern side was 2.19m in length. The drying chamber measured 1.17m north–south by 1.18m, internally. Three fills were recorded within the kiln: a layer of burnt, oxidised clay overlay a black charcoal-rich silty clay, while the basal fill was a shallow layer of redeposited natural. A small quantity of medieval pottery sherds were retrieved from the kiln.

The remains of several other connecting walls were also uncovered in this area, which supports the possibility of an earlier building that was possibly reduced to accommodate the kiln.

3 Lios na Lohart, Ballyvelly, Tralee, Co. Kerry