County: Offaly Site name: Dungar
Sites and Monuments Record No.: OF043-052 & OF052001 Licence number: 22E0131
Author: Mary Henry
Site type: Early 20th-century house
Period/Dating: Modern (AD 1750-AD 2000)
ITM: E 614388m, N 691257m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.971878, -7.785793
Planning permission was obtained to undertake refurbishment works at Old Castle House at Dungar, Co. Offaly. As part of these works there was an element of sub-surface disturbance works required to facilitate the upgrading of the existing septic tank to a new waste water treatment unit and associated site works with the upgrade. One of the conditions of granted planning permission required sub-surface ground works to be monitored.
Dungar Old Castle House, which was built in 1920, is sited c. 45m to the southwest of a ruined castle and bawn. The ruined castle comprises a well-preserved circular tower with an internal diameter of 5.6m and 1.1m thick walls. A second circular tower containing a spiral stairs is attached to the south face of the main tower offering an unusual ground plan of two adjoining circles. All of the main chambers are accessed from the spiral stairs. Its architectural features would suggest a late 16th/early 17th-century date for the tower. In the adjoining walled courtyard to the east of the castle are the low wall footings of a levelled bawn (OF043-052001) that are contemporary with the circular tower house.
As part of the upgrading works at Old Castle House there was a necessity to excavate trenches for new piping, treatment unit and percolation area. Three trenches were sited to the rear of the main house in a small yard; one on a flagged area beside the west gable; and four within the walled garden, with a final trench in an adjoining field to the north. The new treatment unit was sited in the west part of the walled garden, whilst the percolation area was positioned in the south-west part of the field to the north of the walled garden.
Stratigraphy was relatively consistent across the site. A topsoil/garden soil tended to dominate the upper levels with a mid-brown/red sandy clay beneath. In a number of trenches traces of a naturally deposited sandy gravel were exposed at the base of the openings, whilst excavations for the treatment unit and the percolation area extended into these sandy gravels. The only features found were in the percolation area: the remains of a cultivation furrow and a modern semi-circular feature extending beneath the east baulk of the excavated area.
17 Staunton Row, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary
