2016:291 - Swords Castle, Dublin

Phase 1 of Enabling Works were undertaken at Swords Castle between May and November 2016. Swords Castle which is a National Monument (No.340), a recorded monument (DU011-034001-) and protected structure (No.351), is located at the northern end of the Main Street (ITM 718195/ 747010) at its junction of North Street and Bridge Street within the historic town of Swords (DU011-035----). Enabling works involved the consolidation and stabilisation of the east range of the castle and rebuilding of the gatehouse arch which had been identified in the Swords Castle Conservation Plan (2014) as necessary for the protection of the extant structural remains. The internal precinct of the castle was landscaped, including the insertion of new ‘no dig’ paths and lighting bollards. Although impact was minimised to 150-300mm in depth, in the design, archaeological monitoring of all ground works was undertaken.

Due to previous use much of the area had been disturbed. Material recovered included plastic, 19th/20th-century pottery and modern glass. Monitoring of a service trench did identify a rough cobbled surface over an area of 3.6m x0.4m in width, which was consistent in location and form with the medieval yard surface uncovered during the Swords Castle: Digging History community excavations.

Externally units 4-9 of North Street were subject to survey and demolition followed by test-excavation. A total of eight trenches were excavated. Trenches 1-5 were positioned adjacent to Swords Castle walls in order to determine the nature of the walls and inform the ongoing stabilisation programme. An additional three trenches (Trenches 6-8) were undertaken across the foundations of the recently demolished North Street buildings to determine the ground level in this area.

Trenches 1 -3 established the footings of the structures – average 0.3m below the current ground surface - and the nature of the relatively modern material banked against the walls. Within Trench 4, the line of a ditch was traced to a newly identified arch in the base of the East Tower. Trench 4 was dug to 1m below the footing of the Archbishop’s Apartments and 0.75m below the foundation level of the buttress. A sherd of Saintonge ware was recovered from 0.22m directly below the wall of Archbishop’s Apartments. The material underlying the wall appeared to be two successive fills of a gently sloping ditch or pit that predates the construction of the Archbishop’s Apartments.

The remaining test trenches under the recently demolished North Street established scarped ground levels to accommodate building at street level. Subsequently trenches were hand dug along the external walls of the east range to accommodate mortar and stone replacement at the base of the walls. These trenches averaged 0.3m in width and contained relatively modern material.

The identification of pre-structural remains in the testing programme has added another layer to the phasing of Swords Castle.

Reference: Fingal County Council 2014, Swords Castle Conservation Plan http://www.fingal.ie/planning-and-buildings/architectural-conservation/conservationplansandreports/