2024:477 - Carrick, Newtown, Wexford

From 2018 to 2022 the Irish Heritage School (IHS: formerly operating as the Irish Archaeology Field School (IAFS)) and the Irish National Heritage Park (INHP) undertook a major archaeological research project – Digging the Lost Town of Carrig – in the townland of Newtown, Ferrycarrig, County Wexford. This project assessed one of the most historically significant sites in Ireland, Carrick ringwork/castle (WX037-028002-), which was founded in the winter of 1169 by Robert Fitzstephen. The site is of national importance as it represents the very first wave of Anglo-Norman colonisation of the country, being constructed the year before the main Anglo-Norman landing party at Baginbun. A stone castle and medieval borough developed close to (or on) the site of the ringwork in the thirteenth century. Today Carrick castle is located at the western limit of the INHP – a fitting backdrop consisting of a 14-ha outdoor museum that depicts 9000 years of re-created Irish history within natural forestry and wet woodlands. The archaeology project comprised:

1. a major research dig, which aimed to clarify the form, function and date of the ringwork, as well as that of the castle and settlement that subsequently developed at the site;
2. educational and heritage engagement programmes to draw the archaeological site into the park in a creative and sustainable manner, including through experimental archaeology activities;
3. an ancillary, but associated, research project consisting of two cuttings assessing the adjacent borough of Carrick, in a private field at the other (eastern) side of the N11 road. Prior to the castle site being sundered from the medieval town with the construction of the N11 road in 1980s it is important to remember that these sites were one and the same. As such whilst ‘Carrick borough’ was excavated under a different archaeological licence (20E0207) it is important to present the results of the excavation in the context of the larger 2018-2022 excavations at Carrick castle.

Over the course of five years a total of nine cuttings were excavated, assessed and backfilled at Carrick castle (in addition to the two at Carrick borough) providing critical new archaeological data that has been crucial in establishing Carrick’s rightful importance to the medieval histories of Wexford, Ireland and our closest neighbours in England and Wales (Figure 17E0318:1). Excavations aimed to assess all phases of occupation at the site, including the twelfth-century ringwork, thirteenth-century stone castle, fourteenth-century chapel and later destruction of the site’s buildings. The artefacts and samples recovered from the excavation also gave much clearer insight on the diet and economy at Carrick through time, shedding light on other important components of the wider medieval settlement, such as the deer park. The pre-existing landscape, which welcomed the Anglo-Normans, was also assessed with important new evidence of a prehistoric site revealed at Carrick borough.

Whilst annual excavation bulletins for this project were submitted to excavations.ie, final reporting for the site has now been completed. This reporting includes 19 specialist contributions (14 for Carrick castle and five for Carrick borough), details on three non-invasive surveys at the site (LiDAR, geophysical and geological) and a detailed presentation of the excavation results with reference to both the site’s history and previous phases of excavations at Carrick in the 1980s. The excavation results are beyond reiteration here and further details are available in publications on the site (see for example Shine, D., Potterton, M., Mandal, S. and McLoughlin, C. (eds) 2019. Carrick, County Wexford: Ireland’s first Anglo-Norman Stronghold. Four Courts Press, Dublin) or contact Irish Heritage School to request a copy of the final stratigraphic report.