Castle - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

The site of the castle as marked on the 2nd and 3rd editions of the OS 6-inch map is a flat platform of rock measuring about 26m N-S and 18m E-W. There is no trace of a castle here. Clay has been piled on the rock to make a garden. The town of Dunfanaghy stands on the flat ground to the S of the site.

The above description was derived from the 'Archaeological Survey of County Donegal. A description of the field antiquities of the County from the Mesolithic Period to the 17th century.' Compiled by: Brian Lacey with Eamon Cody, Claire Cotter, Judy Cuppage, Noel Dunne, Vincent Hurley, Celie O'Rahilly, Paul Walsh and Seán Ó Nualláin (Lifford: Donegal County Council, 1983). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated.

Date of upload: 22 September 2008

Excavation licence number 02E0782
Testing was undertaken to the rear of the Carrig Rua Hotel in the centre of Dunfanaghy on 13 June 2002. The work was carried out as a condition of planning permission for the refurbishment of the hotel and the construction of a function room and two apartment blocks. The area is close to the site of Dunfanaghy Castle, of which there is now no trace. The development is to be supported on piles. Eight test-trenches were excavated by machine in the footprint of these buildings. Three trenches to the west were within a small concrete courtyard that overlay bright orange boulder clay overlying schist bedrock. Four trenches to the east revealed a modern fill material and beach sand probably imported to create level ground for a beer garden. A foundation crossing Trench 7, the southernmost trench, comprising rough stone and brick in a concrete matrix, was identified from a cartographic source as the remains of a 19th-century outhouse demolished in the 1980s. Trench 8, closest to the hotel, revealed some areas of burning and considerable disturbance by services dug into natural sand and probably represented a former hotel yard. Nothing of archaeological significance was revealed. (Excavations Bulletin 2002)
Tom Rogers, Moore Ltd, Unit 6, Riveroaks, Claregalway, Co. Galway.