2024:470 - Clongoghil Castle, Clonoghil Upper), Offaly

In June-August 2024, the IHS (Irish Heritage School, formerly trading as the Irish Archaeology Field School (IAFS)) undertook an excavation at Clonoghil Castle, Clonoghil Upper townland in Co. Offaly. Clonoghil Castle, located 1.6km outside of Birr Town, is in the ownership of the Offaly County Council (OCC) and is a recorded monument (OF035-014001 (castle) and OF035-014004 (bawn)) protected under the National Monuments Acts 1930-2014.

Clonoghil is a potentially multi-period site containing a stone castle, potentially a tower- or hall house (OF035-014001), surrounded by an earthen bawn (OF035-014004). The earthen ‘bawn’ is of uncertain date and has variously been associated with an earlier repurposed ringfort, a later medieval bawn and seventeenth-century defences. The excavation, run as a research dig, aimed to date both the stone castle and earthen bawn (as well as assess their form and function).

Two cuttings were opened at the site. Cutting 1 was excavated across the south-eastern side of the monument where the ditch and bank are most obvious, whilst Cutting 2 was excavated on the internal south-east angle of the castle, where an observed internal wall cupboard gave some indication as to the depth of any likely floor surface. No archaeological excavation was undertaken outside the monuments, as geophysical surveys by the IHS and OCC at Clonoghil in 2023 (undertaken by Ger Dowling: Detection Device Registration No. 23R0024) indicate the landscape surrounding the castle is largely devoid of archaeology; this finding was consistent with archaeological testing results at the western limit of the field containing Clonoghil, conducted by David Sweetman in 2006.

As the excavations revealed a near absence of material cultural items from the site, and whilst radiocarbon dates are awaited, the excavations have not yet fulfilled their main aim of dating Clonoghil castle and bawn. However, careful architectural recording of the castle (conducted in tandem with the excavation), indicates that both typologically and structurally the structure is likely to be fourteenth-century hall house. This hall house appears to have been altered, most likely in the seventeenth century, when chimneys and possible red-brick windows or reveals were added – subtle archaeological evidence of which remain on site. The enclosure, which is also pending radiocarbon dating, is also considered most likely to have originally functioned as a later medieval bawn for the stone castle. This earthwork may have been altered through time, with the ditch seemingly recut and the bank extended sometime in the seventeenth to nineteenth century. A further update on the excavations will be prepared as post-excavation is completed.

The excavations at Clonoghil are part of a much wider public heritage programme of research entitled Monastic Midlands. This landscape-scale project is a partnership between the IHS, OCC and several local communities in Co. Offaly and includes research at several sites such as Seir Kieran, Killeigh, Birr and Lemanaghan.