2012:670 - CASTLEPOOK HOUSE, Cork

Excavation in advance of conservation/reconstruction began in December 2012 and continued until April 2013. This first phase comprised the excavation of a 4m-wide strip around the exterior of the tower-house, excavation of the interior ground floor, and excavation of three test trenches to the north-west of the castle on the route of a proposed access road. Deposits in the interior ground floor comprised of a c. 0.4m deep buildup of decayed organic material with modern artefacts, lying on the natural bedrock. Given the wide breaches in the ground floor walls the castle clearly served as an animal shelter for many years. This buildup lay directly on bedrock, and no evidence of an original floor was found.

Outside the north-eastern corner of the tower-house, and abutting it, the foundations of another building were found nestling in the corner of the bawn. Only the western end of this building, Structure B, was excavated. It was 4.8m wide and its outline traced on the surface indicates it was c. 11m long. At the north-west corner of the building areas of burnt clay, ashes and charcoal were identified, indicating the presence of a hearth. Between Str B and the tower-house entrance there was a roughly paved surface forming a ‘yard’ between the two. Since both structures were built directly on bedrock useful evidence such as foundation trenches was lacking and no stratigraphic evidence linking the two was found. The recovery of pottery of the 17th and 18th centuries in Structure B suggests it may well have been contemporary with tower-house and perhaps continued in use after the latter had been abandoned.

Immediately west of Structure B, outside the garderobe outlet of the tower-house, a cesspit was found. The pit, measuring 2.6m east-west and extending northwards beyond the limit of the excavation, had been cut through bedrock to a depth of 1m.

Three test trenches were excavated to the west and north-west of the castle on the route of the proposed access road. No archaeological features were encountered in trenches T2 and T3, where topsoil lay on bedrock. At the southern end of T1, c. 22m to the north-west of the castle, part of a curving wall of a building, Str. C, was found, standing c. 0.5m high. The nature and date of this structure is unknown. However, a concentration of burnt lime fragments and small stones nearby suggests it was associated with lime working. It may have been a lime kiln, or a lime slaking pit, and may well be contemporary with the tower-house, though there is not enough evidence as yet to be certain of this.