2011:588 - CASTLE CAULFIELD, LISNAMONAGHAN, Tyrone

Excavations were carried out at Castle Caulfield, Lisnamonaghan, between 13 June and 8 July 2011 on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) at the request of Maybelline Gormley, Senior Inspector.
Castle Caulfield is a State Care monument on the outskirts of the village of Castlecaulfield, around 3km west of Dungannon. The manor house was constructed by Sir Toby Caulfield in the aftermath of the Ulster Plantation on lands that formerly belonged to the O’Donnellys, one of the main supporting families of the O’Neills, the Gaelic lords of Tyrone. Work began on the manor house in 1611 and by 1619 the ‘fair house or castle’ was near completion, along with a stone bridge over the River Torrent and an adjoining watermill. The manor house was burnt in the 1641 rebellion and, although later reoccupied by members of the Caulfield family, by the close of the 17th century it had fallen into ruin.
The manor house was taken into State Care in 1938 and survives as a substantial ruin consisting of a main block with two side wings, one of which is now demolished. The building was originally three storeys high, with attics, and was built of locally quarried limestone, with windows of dressed sandstone. To the north-west is a gatehouse that comprises two ground-floor rooms on either side of a vaulted passageway and with a first-floor chamber above. The north-western room had a circular stair-tower built into it.
The excavation was requested to investigate the chronological relationship between the manor house and the adjoining gatehouse, and to investigate anomalies identified through a geophysical survey in the environs surrounding the building. Four trenches were excavated, each 2m wide and ranging in length between 3m and 5m. The trenches were all excavated by hand.
Trench 1 measured 3m by 2m and was located 5m from the north-eastern wall of the manor house, along the line of what was thought to be the 17th-century bawn wall, and was intended to investigate a linear anomaly identified through the geophysical survey. Excavation of the trench uncovered evidence of previous archaeological investigation at the site by Professor Martin Jope in the late 1950s. A robber trench was also discovered, where the facing stones of the original bawn wall had been removed. The width of the robber trench (0.9–1m) roughly tallied with the width of the bawn wall as recorded by Pynnar in 1613 (4ft at the foundations, 3ft higher up).
Trench 2 measured 5m by 2m and was located between the south-eastern façade of the manor house and the modern boundary wall of the property. It was positioned over a linear positive anomaly identified through geophysical survey. Excavation proved that the anomaly related to the surface and levelling deposits of a road, possibly 17th- or 18th-century in date, that had once skirted close to the castle wall.
Trench 3 measured 3m by 2m and was located at the north-eastern entrance to the gatehouse passageway. Excavation of the trench uncovered a cobbled surface and associated drain, both of which pre-date the existing gatehouse structure. A sherd of 17th-century pottery from below one of the cobbles provided a terminus post quem for the laying down of the cobbled surface. Further excavation around the foundation stones of the gatehouse discovered that the existing gatehouse appears to be secondary and that it had been built on the footing stones of an earlier, smaller building. It is thought that the existing building, therefore, was built after the 17th century and that it incorporates only two elements of the original building—the coat of arms above the passageway and the dressed sandstone door-heading at the entrance to the south-eastern of the ground-floor chambers. The actual date of the building is uncertain but it is possible that it represents an 18th-century ‘folly’, constructed as part of a romantic landscaping of the ruinous old manor house.
Trench 5 measured 5m by 2m and was located 12m to the south-west of the manor house to investigate a large positive anomaly identified through the geophysical survey. The results from the excavation of this trench showed that extensive landscaping had taken place in this area; from the finds this could be dated to the early 1970s, which, according to accounts from local people, coincided with a restoration programme which was carried out at the site.
The excavation found no evidence of occupation at the site prior to the early decades of the 17th century, while it would seem that the current gatehouse was built on the foundations of an early 17th-century building, presumably constructed at the same date as the manor house.

Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork, Queen’s University, Belfast BT7 1NN