2010:163 - The Bishop’s Palace, Downhill Demesne, Derry

A second season of excavation took place at the Bishop’s Palace, also known as Downhill Castle, from 16 June until 1 August 2010 (see Excavations 2009, No. 186, AE/09/130 for report on earlier work). The project was open to public participation and was generously supported by the National Trust’s North Coast Members Association. Work concentrated on clearing the west yard of rubble and soil overburden to remove obstructions from within the yard and reveal yard surfaces and layout of outbuildings. The excavation work revealed a series of standing and partially ruined outbuildings arranged along the west and south-east side of the yard. Buildings on the west side formerly served as a carpenter’s workshop, a possible forge or farrier’s shop and a gasworks building. Amongst small finds from this range were some broken fragments of classical sculpture, roof and floor tiles and fragments of marble and stone fireplace surrounds. Buildings explored on the south-east side of the yard included a series of fuel stores and the remains of a domestic coal gasworks located in the yard’s northern bow end. The remains of the gasworks, which were constructed in 1877, consisted of the base of a large circular gasholder, which had been partially filled in with a mixture of rubble and house rubbish. The foundations of the retort house (or gas house) were located to the west of the gasholder and comprised the lower sections of a chimney built against the perimeter wall and setting for a retort bench. The foundations and floor of the retort house were uncovered and the gasholder itself was partially excavated. A large number of finds were recovered from the backfill material within the gasholder. Finds were primarily of domestic wares of 19th- and early 20th-century date, iron fixtures and fittings, animal bones and glass bottles and ceramic jars. The most surprising finds recovered from this fill were four large pieces of a decorated bipartite Irish bowl. Second season work also successfully cleared out soil and rubble from within the stables and tack room in a roofed range to the south end of the west yard.
A third season of work is planned for June–July 2011. This will seek to complete the excavation of the northern end of the east yard, containing walls of collapsed outbuildings and recovery of a large dump of architectural fragments from the south front of the house.