County: Wexford Site name: TELLAROUGHT CASTLE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: WX034-040 Licence number: E005515
Author: Colm Moriarty
Site type: Castle - tower house
Period/Dating: Late Medieval (AD 1100-AD 1599)
ITM: E 675546m, N 621545m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.340301, -6.891356
Archaeological monitoring of conservation works was carried out on a tower house at Tellarought, Co. Wexford, in October and November 2023. The tower house most likely dates from the 15th or 16th centuries AD and it was closely associated with the Sutton family. However, by 1640 it had passed to ‘Mathew Foord of Dublin’ and it was no longer in ‘good repair’. It presents as four-storey structure with an internal vault, good quoins and a base-batter.
In summary, the works to stabilise and conserve Tellarought castle involved flaunching wall-tops, tying in free-standing masonry elements, repairing windows, removing steel and timber props, re-pointing degraded mortar joints and some rebuild. It should be noted that two earlier phases of conservation repairs were carried out at Tellarought in 2019 and 2020.
The conservation works were archaeologically supervised to ensure that existing historic features were retained (Ministerial Consent: C001192; E005515). The removal of vegetation, loose mortar and earth was also monitored and consideration was given to the possibility that small finds may have been concealed behind masonry or in crevices. However, no archaeological artefacts were identified during the course of the works. No sub-surface excavation occurred at the site.
The Hill, The Leap, Davidstown, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford
