2006:1903 - Nenagh Castle, Nenagh, Tipperary

Test assessment was carried out within the designated area of the national monument Nenagh Castle, and within the delineated zone of archaeological potential for Nenagh town, Co. Tipperary. Testing was carried out in advance of a submission for planning for a proposed visitor centre at the site.
Thought to have been built around ad 1200–1220, Nenagh Castle consisted of a cylindrical masonry tower keep (16m in diameter) incorporated into the northern corner of a pentagonal curtain wall. A rectangular gatehouse with flanking circular towers was incorporated to the south-west, while to the south-east and north-west two more circular towers completed the defences. The curtain walls no longer exist aboveground, but the intact tower keep and part of the gate tower, including one flanking tower, remain. A wall stump to the south-east of the tower keep represents the remains of the flanking tower at this location.
Test assessment was carried out on the south-east side of the standing remains of Nenagh Castle, to the rear of the properties fronting on to Pearse Street. Five test-trenches were opened.
Investigation suggested that considerable truncation of original ground levels had occurred across the site. A date for this truncation (or landscaping) was not firmly established, although a 19th-century date is likely.
Work within the footprint of the circular tower to the south-east of the keep, and immediately adjacent to the remaining tower stump, found no further masonry remains associated with that tower (Trench 1). The truncation in this area was such that no construction cut or demolition evidence associated with the tower remained.
Trench 2 was located immediately to the south-east of the keep and crossed a potential area of occupation inside the curtain wall, extending across the supposed line of the curtain wall and continuing in a north-easterly direction. Again it appeared that the area was truncated. No remains of the curtain wall remained aboveground at this location, and no medieval strata remained inside the line of the curtain wall. Masonry representing the remnant of a curtain wall base batter was exposed, forming the north-east-facing slope of an associated ditch or moat measuring c. 8m wide at this location. The deep inner part of the ditch measured c. 3m wide and 1.8m deep, before stepping up to the north-east and finally rising again as a 1.1m-high outer bank.
Trench 3 was located across the centre of the site on a roughly south-west/north-east alignment. A metalled floor surface and associated possibly in situ masonry remains were found close to the pre-existing ground surface. A date for the masonry remains was not established. The trench abutted a post-medieval outbuilding at its south-western end. The outbuilding gable wall continued to a depth that suggests it may be related to the castle curtain wall. Reinforcing this idea, it appeared that an associated ditch, minimum 2.75m wide and minimum 1.5m deep, was also represented at this location.
Trench 4 was located across the centre of the site on a roughly north-west/south-east alignment to the south of Trench 3. A cut feature measuring a minimum 2.5m wide and filled with mixed masonry rubble and garden soil was exposed crossing the trench on a roughly north–south alignment. The cut feature possibly represents a construction foundation trench, but is more likely to represent a continuation of the ditch and outer bank revealed in Trench 2.
Trench 5 was located at the rear of the Pearse Street properties, extending from the south-west wall of the site, on a south-west to north-east alignment. The truncated remains of an 18th/19th-century masonry foundation were encountered crossing the trench.
Significantly, the evidence suggested the presence of a massive cut ditch curving around the south-east side of Nenagh Castle over a distance of at least 15m from Trench 2 to Trench 4 and with a width of up to 8m. No datable artefacts were recovered from the disturbed ditch fills and it was not clear if the ditch represented an earlier earthwork at the site or if it represented a defensive feature constructed in association with the stone castle.