2018:440 - Knocknashee townland, Roscommon

Excavation at the gatehouse, Boyle Abbey, Co. Roscommon, National Monument No. 167, was carried out over a five-day period between 23-30 October 2018. Ground level within the southern chamber of the gatehouse was reduced by 0.7m to facilitate remedial works relating to the installation of a radon barrier. A small area of cobbles was revealed directly underlying the layers of concrete flooring in the chamber, adjacent to the east wall. These cobbles had been recorded during excavations in the chamber in 1982/83 and they appear to date to at least a post-medieval phase at the gatehouse, as finds of glass and clay pipe in the layers of fill underlying the cobbles suggest. A substantial mortared stone wall, orientated east-west, was discovered partly underlying the north wall of the chamber. The wall was exposed for 3.8m of its length and it had a minimum width of 0.7m but its northern limits could not be recorded due to the position of the gate house wall. The wall survived to a maximum height of 0.6m at the western end and 0.28m at the eastern end, with a short section in the centre having a height of 0.2m. It was composed of a number of very large stones, particularly along the western two-thirds of the wall, with medium-sized stones to the centre of the wall and to the east. The final 1m section of the wall to the east appeared to be slightly off the orientation of the rest of the wall and it was less well constructed. The wall appears to be related to the medieval west range of the abbey, pre-dating the remodelling of the gatehouse in the late sixteenth century. The wall was recorded and retained in situ.

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