2007:1520 - Tulsk, Roscommon

Archaeological excavation, conducted seasonally since 2004 (Excavations 2004, No. 1484; Excavations 2005, No. 1352; Excavations 2006, No. 1758) with the assistance of many volunteers, has focused on a c. 6m-wide by 55m-long trench across the raised ringfort’s interior. The site is considered to have been a residence of the O’Conor Roe lords from the end of the 14th century and, as such, is being investigated as part of the Discovery Programme’s Medieval Rural Settlement Project (2002–8), which is considering the nature of Gaelic lordship in north Roscommon. The excavation has exposed later medieval levels, principally in terms of a mortared stone tower that occupies the eastern side of the mound. The presence of a substantial horizon of occupation lying above this level, however, dates from the mid-1500s and has revealed its own interesting story, which relates to a time when the mound was garrisoned, no doubt as part of the works associated with Sir Richard Bingham’s presence in Tulsk as Queen Elizabeth I’s Governor to Connacht.
The basal layers of the Elizabethan activity were achieved in 2007. At the eastern end of the site, such activity lay directly above the later medieval tower. However, at the western end of the site, the Elizabethan activity overlies a mixed context where the bulk of the small finds appear to be early medieval in date, and perhaps 10th–11th-century in particular. A series of three ring brooches along with glass beads and bone pins attest to this assemblage, while rich organic remains in terms of ash and fire deposits may well help to fine-tune the dating sequence through a sequence of 14C determinations.
At the eastern side of the mound, a slightly different sequence of events was traced. The stone tower occupies a footprint c. 20m long (north–south) by 10m wide, and helped to define the eastern perimeter of the mound. The tower overlooked a deep fosse that was cut around the mound. Interestingly, this ditch may have continued into the mound itself, thereby separating the tower from the wider open area created by the mound. The feature requires further excavation but it was clear in 2007 that the early medieval levels within the main interior area were truncated to accommodate a steeply sloping feature that is currently best described as the inner return of the ditch.
The external façade of the tower retains the base and chute of a mural garderobe. Excavation in 2007 revealed a bowl-shaped area of mud which had formed around the mouth of the garderobe, where constant cleaning of the latrine would have resulted in the mud being trampled into the surrounding area as the waste (both human and domestic) was shovelled from the garderobe into the ditch. Preliminary analysis of the environmentally rich deposits associated with the base of the garderobe reveal fly pupae.
At some stage, the stone tower collapsed but out of the ruins the occupants created a new building that extended the tower eastwards across the fosse. This new building measures 15m long (east–west) by 9m wide. Unfortunately the evidence of an occupation floor was removed during the 19th century, when a rude stone wall and ditch were cut across the lower edge of the mound to act as a field boundary. It is entirely possible that less disturbed remains of the large east–west building survive further away from the mound, where geophysical survey anomalies indicate a proper gable end.
Among the many exciting discoveries in 2007 was what lay in the ditch. The sequence of events that describe the demolition or collapse of the stone tower, and indeed its rebuilding and the subsequent collapse of the tower and outer building, are etched into the sections. The later building itself, where it crosses the ditch, was constructed on a large and deep foundations of rock and boulders, reused from the collapsed tower. Underneath all of this rubble, there is a sequence of ditch deposits associated with the tower. Rich in animal bone, charcoal and ash, it is hoped that the environmental and dating insights which post-excavation analysis will provide will cast additional light on to the sequence of events. The final days of the excavation revealed that the ditch which served the later medieval tower is recut. That is to say, the ditch lies above a still earlier ditch, and preliminary investigation has shown a thick deposit of earlier material underlying the western edge of the later medieval ditch. That earlier material also retains animal bone and may well be contemporary with the 10th–11th-century levels found within the site’s interior.
Despite the pretty awful weather of 2007, the excavation has generated important insight that brings us much closer to realising the essential sequence of events on the mound at Tulsk. It was a location and residence of importance during the later medieval period, and indeed it seems to have had a similar role in the preceding period. The sense to which Tulsk was an important medieval centre is clear. The excavation work is not finished, yet the end does seem close. The basal layers of ditch, the internal sequence of events on the mound’s interior, the inner workings of the medieval tower and the nature of the building that was added on to the tower are all areas where we have achieved insight but require further detail to complete the investigations. We look forward to the opportunity of doing so in 2008.