2024:664 - Ballintober Castle, Rosmeen, Roscommon

An eighth season of excavation and survey took place at Ballintober Castle, Co. Roscommon, RO027-048002-, in 2024 as part of the archaeological and anthropological research and Summer field school project, Castles in Communities, Archaeological Settlement Studies.

Excavation continued inside the castle at its main entrance, Cutting 3.

Cutting 3 is placed within the original entrance area along the eastern perimeter wall. It aims to reveal elements of the building history of the entrance complex itself. It also seeks to assess whether this prominent entrance might be a logical and safe place to install a viewing platform into the castle for future generations of visitors.

Prior to the cutting being started in 2019, the location was surveyed in detail using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR).

Cutting 3 measures 20m long by 6m wide and is extended along the long axis of the entrance, purposefully chosen to expose the side walls of the entrance towers that define the entrance, and the central path of the entrance itself.

In 2024 it was possible to begin to investigate sealed contexts underneath the collapse levels whose removal has taken up the bulk of earlier season’s inputs. Two focal points emerged. A cobbled surface previously exposed at the east end of the cutting and representing an entrance as a pathway between the twin entrance towers, was investigated. A portion of the cobble was removed to reveal a 2.9m-deep deposit of fill, which covered over a former drawbridge pit. Basal deposits exist within the drawbridge pit that contain organic remains, offering important potential for further insight when these are exposed more fully and investigated.

The second focus of excavation in 2024 was at the west end of the cutting, where an expanse of burning observed in 2023 was confirmed to be associated with a lime kiln, half of which lies inside Cutting 3. The kiln is stone-lined, retains its flue, and its bowl measures 1.68m in surviving depth. The location of the lime kiln close to the castle entrance indicates it is a feature of the castle’s dereliction, which probably dates to the eighteenth century and speaks to when the standing remains of the castle walls were quarried for use in other building projects in the area.

Excavation in the space between the entrance towers and the lime kiln has continued to remove building collapse and to expose a series of features whose full realisation awaits further investigation.

The 2024 excavation season made significant advances in resolving the archaeology of Cutting 3. Further work is planned for 2025 to investigate more fully the drawbridge pit, and to investigate the surface layers within the castle interior that are being exposed in the western half of the cutting.

Post-excavation analysis is ongoing. A series of radiocarbon determinations have been achieved from deposits acquired by coring of geophysical survey targets taken in 2022 from the contracted settlement area to the east of the castle. The results compare favourably with a series of dated samples from the adjacent cutting DS2 in 2022, attesting to the high medieval occupation of the village area.