2011:348 - BARRETTSTOWN CASTLE, Kildare

Planning permission for a recreational/sports building at Barrettstown Castle, Ballymore Eustace, required an Impact Assessment, including testing. The development lands are situated in the north-western area of an existing building complex, and to the rear (west) of a range of former agricultural buildings. It comprises a rough-surface yard with associated access roads and areas of rough ground, containing spoil heaps.

The present buildings which comprise Barrettstown Castle are largely of early Victorian date and were constructed around the remains of a late 12th-century Anglo-Norman tower-house (KD024-029). The remains of this tower, which was originally constructed by the Eustace family, are located c. 100m to the south-south-east of the development area. The files of the Archaeological Survey of Ireland note that the tower-house has been incorporated into the 19th-century Victorian Gothic house and has been completely modernised. The existing crenulations, arrow loops (some false) and arched windows are all reconstructions.

The testing was undertaken in January 2011, having been postponed from the previous December owing to heavy snowfall. Fourteen test trenches were excavated in the area of the proposed development. All trenches were excavated by machine fitted with a toothless ditching/grading bucket, after which the sides and bases of the trenches were cleaned by hand and visually examined. In addition, all the spoil generated by the excavation of the test trenches was ‘raked over’ to increase the potential for the recovery of archaeological artefacts.

No features, structures, deposits or artefacts of archaeological interest were uncovered during the course of the testing.

Byrne Mullins & Associates, 7 Cnoc Na Greine Square, Kilcullen, Co. Kildare