County: Clare Site name: MCPARLAND’S HOUSE, 18 PARNELL STREET, ENNIS
Sites and Monuments Record No.: CL033-082005 Licence number: 11E0377
Author: Frank Coyne
Site type: Urban late medieval/post-medieval structure
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 533700m, N 677459m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.843977, -8.984178
The site known as McParland’s House had been identified as a dangerous structure by Ennis Town Council, and a programme of works was deemed necessary to repair and stabilise the structure. The chimney-cap, gable wall and chimney-breast were being dismantled under the guidance of a conservation engineer, David Humphreys of ACP, and by the monitoring archaeologist in October 2011. The gable wall and ‘Jacobean’ chimney are thought to date from c. 1600.
A test pit excavated on the ground floor in the interior of the house, at the base of the wall adjacent to a fireplace, showed at least three separate floor levels. The uppermost concrete floor layer dates from the 20th century. This covered a second mortar floor layer which appears to date from late 19th-century remodelling of the interior of the house. This in turn lies on top of a third, earlier mortar floor surface, which appears to date from the late 18th/19th century. Removal of this layer revealed an area of compact brown sticky clay and small rough stones. This was interpreted as a medieval floor level.
Excavation was subsequently carried out around this fireplace. This revealed that the fireplace had been narrowed over the centuries and had been infilled with brick. One phase of this narrowing appears to correspond with a flagstone which, when lifted, produced a clay pipe with an impression of Daniel O’Connell and dating from 1829. Excavation of all the brick infill showed that the basal courses of the original late medieval fireplace were intact, with an interior cobbled surface surviving in places.
ÆGIS Archaeology Limited, 32 Nicholas Street, King’s Island, Limerick
