Castle - ringwork

The National Monuments Service's description

On an E-facing slope. A roughly square enclosure (dims. c. 50m N-S; c. 53m E-W) with rounded corners, defined by a bank and broad deep U-shaped fosse (D c. 2m; Wth 4m). A townland boundary ran roughly N-S along the E side and another ran along the public road which formerly skirted the S edge of the monument. In 1974 a new Callan-Kilkenny road was constructed across the centre of the monument from NE-SW, by which time the enclosure had been levelled by ploughing (Sutton 1974, 18). Archaeological investigations were carried out which revealed that an extensive area of the interior had been cobbled (ibid.). There was a well (D 3m) built of dry-stone walling in the SE quadrant and the base of a stone and mortar tower (int. dims. < 2m) were found in the fosse in the NE quadrant (ibid.). The excavator noted two phases of habitation, the earliest dating to the 13th-century based on pottery finds, while, ‘structural and material finds suggest that secondary habitation of the site occurred in late or post medieval times’ (ibid.). The 13th-century date for the primary occupation suggests that this is an Anglo-Norman earthwork, possibly a ringwork.

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 9 May 2022

References

Sutton, D. 1974 Castletobin: medieval earthwork. In T. Delaney (ed.), Excavations 1974: summary accounts of archaeological work in Ireland, 18.