2022:645 - Derrinlaur Lower, Waterford

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Waterford Site name: Derrinlaur Lower

Sites and Monuments Record No.: WA002-003001 Licence number: 22E0896

Author: Mary Henry

Site type: Natural feature - no archaeology found

Period/Dating: N/A

ITM: E 625166m, N 622686m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.355180, -7.630568

As part of seeking planning permission to construct a dwelling house, undertake associated site works and the demolition of an existing dwelling house at Derrinlaur Lower, Clonmel, Co. Waterford it was required to undertake a programme of archaeological testing.

The development site is located c. 100m to the southeast of Derrinlaur castle (WA002-003001). In addition to the tower house, there are potentially three seventeenth-century houses (WA002-003002, WA002-054001 & WA002-054002) nearby.

Derrinlaur castle owes its origins to the Butler family who built the structure in the fourteenth century. At a strategic location, at the foothills of the Comeragh Mountains and within the River Suir valley, the castle was the location of a number of confrontations between the crown forces and the native Irish. By 1640 it was described as the stump of a castle owned by Thomas Butler, Lord Cahir. It is denoted on the 1655-56 Down Survey map. The castle comprises a circular tower with a rectangular structure with circular corners towers added to the west and southern main tower. Only the south-east corner tower survives, with an external dimension of in excess of 7m and 4m high. In addition to the castle there are references in the Down survey to cabins and an incomplete stone house. However, their location remains unknown.

A total of four test trenches were sited on the imprint of the proposed works. Three test trenches were featureless with relatively consistent stratigraphy across the openings. Along much of the fourth trench, which was located on the proposed driveway, topsoil cover was shallow and directly overlaid a compact orange/brown sandy gravel stony natural deposition. Located just less than 1m from the east end of the trench, extending north-south across its width a linear feature was exposed. A defined straight edge along its west side, the feature had a width of 4.7m (east-west), continuing under the north and south baulks of the trench. Extending to a depth of 890mm, the feature was infilled with a light to mid-brown clay-based basal deposit. Mid/dark brown silty clay deposits, one of which contained creamware, overlaid the clay. The feature was sealed by topsoil. It was considered this feature, when viewed within the context of the landscape, a buried stream bed.

17 Staunton Row, Clonmel, Co. Tipperary