Excavation at Carrickmines.

Yesterday and today, but not tomorrow.

Carrickmines3.jpg (39450 bytes)“During the whole winter after the Rebellion the County Dublin, south of the city, was in the hands of the rebels. Their defeat, in February, 1642, at Dean’s Grange, gave them, no doubt, a check, and they fell back upon Carrickmines Castle, which they had prepared to stand a siege.”

That siege, when it arrived, was of short duration and came to an abrupt end in March when troops, angered by the fatal shooting by a sniper of their commander, Sir Simon Harcourt, breached the castle walls and, according to most contemporary accounts slaughtered all those inside, 300 men, women and children. The castle was then blown up and levelled to the ground.

And there the story begins.

In some ways this is a Golden Age for Irish archaeology - never before have so many skilled people been employed to reveal the past. But it comes at a price. Once their work is done it’s gone forever. We’re building factories, shopping centres and, in this case, roads, which will obliterate that evidence of a time long ago.  

The South Eastern Motorway will cover the site of Carrickmines castle and archaeologists in large numbers are now working on the area. It’s likely they’ll have all the time they need to complete their work but the roadways will inevitably destroy much of what has lain undisturbed for centures.

When that work is complete Dr. Mark Clinton, site director, says it will take about two years before the findings are published.

They will cover an area stretching more than a kilometre and a time period from late Neolithic to the 18th century. Considering the huge amount of items recovered and the “3D” look of the site which, he says, make it easy for visitors to follow, he is hopeful that the findings will prove popular both academically and popularly.

Dr. Clinton has examined all the existing records of the area and describes it as akin to trying to read a newspaper with only half of the headlines and none of the text. “There are a fair number of medieval references, little snippets from the headlines of the period, we know that there were mounted archers based there for a time in the 14th century and that the Earl of Southampton’s Horse was billeted in the Castle in 1599, but there is no continuous story.”

The discovery of the bodies of 18 women, aged from late teens to mid-twenties, at least one of whom died violently and, separately, of the disarticulated limbs of at least 12 individuals would seem to point toward a massacre but, Dr. Clinton points out, it is not as simple as that. “The females had coins concealed in the folds in their clothing and while the initial study seemed to give a late Elizabethan date, one of the coins has now proved to be James I. The disarticulated limbs were discovered in a strata which seems to date from the 1700s. They could, however, have been reburied there at a later time. Obviously we’ll be doing all the deep trawling in post excavation research but there is no common account of something of this nature happening in the mid-1700’s ”

Carrickmines2.jpg (38689 bytes)When the Motorway was being planned a traffic island was included to contain the one remaining standing wall of the castle. This, however, has proved to be part of an outer defensive wall. “The island contains a small standing part but the castle was about five times bigger than the island,” Dr. Clinton says.

When the Motorway is completed - and there appears to be little discussion of whether it should now go ahead along the planned route - it will result in the destruction of most of the foundations. “Conservation through record,” is how Dr. Clinton describes the work.

And, because it was mistakenly believed that the planned traffic island contained most of the castle, the destruction of the larger part of the structure is inevitable. Matters are not helped either by the fact that the site lies at a point where an interchange and various link roads are also planned.

The main residence, a sizeable manor farm with an inner fortified dwelling, was the centre of the holdings of the Walshe family. In times of raids the inner building could be defended by a small number until reinforcements arrived. But, in time of war or when larger raids were being planned the outer ring of defences could accommodate a much larger number. “There was a huge outer enclosure, defined by a moat and a wall, a ready-made position for organising offensives and launching sorties,” says Dr. Clinton. “We still haven’t got to the inner fortified dwelling.”

Dr. Clinton, believes the site could have been “an absolute gem of a tourist attraction for Dun Laoghaire Rathdown.” Certainly there is more than enough material already uncovered for a local exhibition several times over, up to 15,000 pieces of pottery (some of which are complete enough to be restored), coins, worked flints, leather footwear, an early Bronze Age house site, the list gets longer every day.

There are some references to a medieval church but as yet no trace has been found, nor indeed has any evidence of the destruction of the castle. “There may have been a siege tunnel dug and we may find traces of it,” he says. “Laying siege to a medieval castle was not something which anyone wanted to waste time on. They’d be working very fast and would have been very worried about possible counter-attack. We know that heavy cannon were used to breach the walls and we may find evidence of shattered walls.”

The Manor house which was afterwards built is also yet to be found though Dr. Clinton believes it may be in the area of the planned traffic island.

The highlights so far says Dr. Clinton are the Elizabethan coins which are in remarkable condition and will be going on display in the National Museum.

General Index. .