A study of Dundonnell Castle, Co. Roscommon (original) (raw)
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Recent revelations from thirteenth-century Roscommon
The Roscommon County Council Heritage Research Bursary 2014 was awarded to aid research conducted in fulfillment of a PhD Thesis entitled ‘Medieval halls and rectangular chamber-towers in thirteenth-century Ireland’. Supervised by Professor Tadhg O’Keeffe of the UCD School of Archaeology (submitted December 2014), this study of medieval castles provides a comprehensive understanding of both the architectural form and function of chamber-towers and their respective medieval halls throughout Ireland during the thirteenth-century. As part of a detailed case-study on Roscommon within this thesis, five castles were selected for further investigation; Castlemore, Castlesampson, Castle Naughton, Kilteasheen and Kilcolman. Geophysical survey was conducted at Castlemore and Castlesamspon to investigate the presence of potential associated buildings such as medieval halls. This survey revealed previously unknown details about these castles which have significant implications for Irish castle-studies. This report outlines the results of this survey.
'Blarney Castle: An Irish Tower House' by James Lyttleton
Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 118, 142-4, 2013
In this book the current Professor of Archaeology at University College Cork presents an outstanding account of the prehistoric archaeology of county Cork. Although the author notes that the target audience is 'an interested public', and that the book is primarily for a Cork readership, the text is so comprehensive that it can certainly be used by both students and professional archaeologists in Ireland and beyond. O'Brien provides an easily accessible source of quite detailed information, supplemented by meticulous endnotes, which facilitates those who need to know the original sources of information in journals, books and unpublished reports.
Dunstaffnage Castle, Argyll & Bute: excavations in the north tower and east range, 1987-94
Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
Reports excavations in areas thought to encompass the donjon and hall respectively. Traces of an early curtain wall predating the north tower were found. At ground level, two window embrasures were revealed in the east wall of the building and, on its south side, a doorway into a passage linking with the east range. In the late seventeenth or eighteenth century the passage was blocked and a fireplace inserted into the north gable of the east range, which was occupied at least until the late eighteenth century. There are specialist reports on: `Sculptured stones' by Pamela Graves (576--8); `Coins' by Nicholas M McQ Holmes (578--9); `Other small finds' by David Caldwell (579--87); `Pottery' by Helen Smith (587 & 589) followed by `Medieval and post-medieval pottery' by Robert S Will (589--90); `Clay tobacco pipes' by Dennis B Gallagher (590--6); `Vessel glass' by K R Murdoch (596--7); The environmental evidence begins with `Charcoal' by Sheila Boardman (...
The recorded archaeological sites within c. 1km of the proposed development are listed below, all noted in the Record of Monuments and Places for County Dublin. The monuments are listed in a standard format as follows: SMR No. Townland NGR OD (feet) Inventory No. Classification Description List of Sites and Monuments DU014:001 Kilshane 31053 24382 OD 200-300 N/A Motte Possible Site Situated in a raised area near field boundary in a field of tillage. Shown on the 1949 6 inch OS map as a circular mound (diam. c. 40 m) with an enclosing ditch along the WSW and NE. Max diam c. 75 m. There are no surface remains visible. DU014:00501 Dunsoghly 31182 24320 OD (not listed) N/A Tower House Situated on a slight rise in low lying grassland. This is a four storey tower house with four projecting corner towers (ext dims 10.50 m E-W, 8.1 m N-S, c. 21 m in height). It is built of coursed limestone blocks with dressed quoins. The character of the masonry changes from top to bottom, the blocks used being more regular in the base of the tower. There is a base batter. The ground floor is entered through a doorway in the N wall. This is a three centred arched doorway with roughly dressed limestone jambs. A narrow doorway with a flat segmented arch, in the E wall, is blocked up. The ground floor is vaulted on an N-S axis with chambers off the four corners. It is lit by single slit opes in the S (one) W (two) and N (two). These penetrate the base batter. Wicker work is visible in the plaster work. The NW chamber is entered through a pointed arch doorway which is vaulted (dims 3.40 m E-W, 2.80 m N-S). A curving passage is only partially roofed. The SE tower is also vaulted (dims 3.20 m x 2.80 m) and is entered through a pointed arched doorway. There is a blocked up doorway in the E wall. The stairwell is contained within the NE tower which is entered off a hallway through a pointed arched doorway. The stairs are lit by tall rectangular windows. The NW tower contains a brick fireplace incorporating chamfered jambs. It is lit by a tall rectangular window in the NW. The SW tower contains a garderobe with a wall press in the E wall and a musket hole in the N wall. The SE chamber of the first floor has a musket hole in the S wall. There is also a three centred arched recess with chamfered jambs containing a hollowed basin with a drain hole. The second floor is missing. Corbels are visible. It was entered through a rounded arched doorway off the NE stairwell. Fireplace in N wall is flat arched with chamfered jambs. There are chambers off the NW, SW and SE corners. There is a timber roof over the second floor. A fireplace in the west wall has a flat arch with chamfered jambs. The corner chambers have a corbelled roof. The Tudor chimneys of the fireplaces are still present. The battlements are entered through a pointed arched doorway in the NE tower. DU014:00502 Dunsoghly 31184 24321 OD (not listed) N/A Chapel Adjoining the SW end of Dunsoghly Castle. An oblong single storey building with a pitched galvanized roof (int. dims L 6.60 m, Wth. 4.40 m, Thickness of wall 0.70 m). This is built of randomly coursed masonry with roughly dressed limestone quoins. Entrance in W end of N wall through a round arched doorway with dressed jambs incorporating a double roll moulding with hood moulding which terminates in a rosette (E) and a fleur-de-lis (W). Above the door is an inscribed tablet. The interior is lit by a double light window and semi-elliptical arches and cusps below a flat jamb. In the S wall there is a blocked up rectangular window and a pointed arch single light opening. The SE corner of the chapel is damaged and slightly battered. This is probably an effort to support the E gable. There are traces of a wide round arched E window. Within the interior there are wall presses in the E and W end of the N wall.
Along the valley … of the Dee and their mountain tributaries, where they begin to open towards the English plain, mottes and ringworks succeed one another like beads on a string. There was no overall plan of defence …. They served only for local protection against an enemy who came by stealth and at night to forage and to loot … (Pounds 1990, 70) This article examines the medieval castles of Cheshire, in North-West England, and argues that there was far more continuity in conceptions of power, place, and land tenure across the eleventh and twelfth centuries than has been previously recognized. New interpretations of existing evidence are presented, indicating that the medieval castles in the western areas of the county were strategically sited and maintained throughout the Anglo-Norman period. Probably because the River Dee largely formed the western boundary of the entire frontier county from the end of the thirteenth century (Harris 1984, 1), Anglo-Norman castles located to the west of the River Dee in medieval west Cheshire have tended to be researched separately from their counterparts to the east of the River Dee. This has had the overall effect of both diminishing the value of this important northern section of the Anglo-Welsh border — what is here termed the Irish Sea Cultural Zone — and ignoring the significant research and interpretation potential of the castles and their landscapes, in terms of their individual and group significance within medieval Cheshire. As such, the concept of the Irish Sea Cultural Zone, and its nature and extent, is proposed in this article for the first time. The evidence relating to the siting and form of the zone’s castles is analysed through a landscape history and archaeological study, which spans many disciplinary boundaries. Discussion will highlight that continuity of form from prehistoric, Roman, or Anglo-Saxon monuments to Anglo-Norman castles reflected the continuity of purpose in control over communications, as well as reflecting the continuing significance of military and social influences on the siting of the castles in west Cheshire.
This paper presents a case study of the eleventh-century elite landscapes of the now non-extant Nantwich Castle and the neighbouring hundredal head manor of Acton, both manors situated within Warmundestrou Hundred, in Cheshire, north-west England. It stresses that any preconceived assumptions about the direct continuity of temporal and spatial succession from a head manor of a pre-existing Anglo-Saxon estate to the site of an Anglo-Norman castle should be disregarded. Highlighting the dangers of an interpretative approach based on a myopic focus on one site for one particular period, this paper instead calls for a close examination of the wider landscape of castles and their sitings within their Domesday hundreds. The research approach is interdisciplinary, thus examining all available architectural, cartographic, documentary, place-name, archaeological and topographical material. Initial conclusions point to a late eleventh-century paradigm shift of power from Acton to Nantwich; there is no evidence for an early-built baronial fortification at Nantwich, but there is evidence that Acton’s manorial landscape retained its elite significance without a castle build. Comparing Nantwich with the salt town of Droitwich in Worcestershire, the paper concludes that this apparent paradigm shift of power can be attributable to the semi-autonomous earls of Chester, and their freedom to control the economics of the county independently of the Crown. This paper will contribute to future multidisciplinary research of castles and their landscapes, by demonstrating that any lack of continuity of site significance, can be experienced instead by the continuity of a zone of elite, social, political, and economic power.
This paper readdresses the unusual phenomenon of hilltop castle siting in England and Wales. It agrees with the general consensus that hilltop castles were intentionally symbolic of their builders’ power, rather than having an effective defensive purpose. The paper challenges the limitations of a general castellogical research approach to gaining a more complete understanding of a hilltop castle’s purpose. Generally overlooked are the strong linkages between the castle’s wider geopolitical landscape, the social power of the hilltop castle builder,and the form and siting of hilltop castles in relation to each other within relevant contemporary geographical boundaries. The research approach is multidisciplinary, including the examination of all available architectural, cartographic, documentary, place-name, archaeological and topographical material. The case study of the medieval hilltop castles of 12th-century Buckton and 13th-century Beeston in Cheshire, north-west England, uncovers a clear physical and symbolic link between them, where their similar form and siting in the landscape were intended to enhance the significant power of the earls of Chester. Both hilltop positions were deliberately chosen to enhance their visibility from within elite hunting landscapes below.A prime purpose for Beeston’s hilltop siting was the intervisibility between the castle and its ancestral castle at Buckton. Both demarcating and overseeing Cheshire’s boundaries, the castles jointly symbolised significant inherited power within the geopolitical landscape of the county and beyond. This paper will contribute to future multidisciplinary research of the geopolitical, social and symbolic relationships between castles, their builders and their landscapes, thus integrating the wider fields of castellology, medieval archaeology and history.