House - medieval

The National Monuments Service's description

The remains of this medieval house were discovered in the course of excavations undertaken in 1992 (license no. 92E0010; Hayden 1993). The building proved to be of 13th- or 14th-century date and measured 8.6m east-west by 4m north-south internally and had walls up to 0.95m in thickness, standing to a maximum height of 0.60m. The building is likely to have had more than one storey judging from the stoutness of the walls and the entrance was situated at its east end. Three floor levels were uncovered in the interior and took the form of mortar or clay floors with associated occupation deposits. Initially the ground floor may have been a single room but during a second phase, when the second floor level was laid, it was divided into two rooms by a stone footing presumably carrying a wooden superstructure. The building was set in a trench partly cut into the rising ground below the cliff to the south and water seeping down the cliff face appears to have been a problem. This was alleviated by the construction of underfoot drains and a sump at the second level. The building appears to have gone out of use and been demolished by the 15th or 16th century possibly as a result of the area being inundated by the sea when large sand banks were laid down (Hayden 1993).

Compiled by: Paul Walsh

Date of upload: 23 June 2015

References

Hayden, A. 1993d Howth House, Howth. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 1992: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 27. Bray. Wordwell.