Week Two and the sun came out for us

We are a bit behind in our daily posts so here is an update of what has been happening since the latest post last Thursday..

On Friday we had our first school visit which was a great success.

School visit - everyone got a chance to dig!

This is the first of at least eight organised visits of schools from the Monea area. The children had a tour of the castle, a tour of the excavations and then broke into groups and they had a go at digging, sieving and surveying.

On Monday we were joined by volunteers from the Clogher Historical Society who got stuck in straight away and made light work of the sod removal in Cutting 3.

Volunteers from the Clogher Historical Society in Cutting 3

Nick Brannon, the lead archaeologist for the project, 
was on hand for an excellent photo opportunity.

The sun came out properly (finally) on Tuesday and we had another productive day. Deborah from the Clogher volunteers had the best find of the day, a musket ball, found in Cutting 6

Deborah from the Clogher Historical Society and her find!

Musket ball!

We also had our second school group on Tuesday morning. Here’s Christina showing the children some examples of things that you might find on a site. The best suggestion we got for this object from the class was “a unicorn horn”! 

Site talk during school visit

Day Three - Cutting 1 and 6

A group of enthusiastic volunteers from the Cavanaleck Community Association spent much of the day on site braving the rainy conditions. After a tour of the castle the group got involved in a bit of digging and de-sodding in Cutting 6. 

Volunteers from Cavanaleck Community Association at Cutting 6

By the time the sun had come out in the afternoon the sod was off and the volunteers were already starting to fill the finds tray. A great day was had by all involved.

Meanwhile Cutting 1 is looking very interesting.     

Cutting 1 following removal of sod

Day Two - Cutting 4 and 5 showing potential

Day 2 was a wet one. Despite this we are making good progress. 

Cutting 4 is looking good and there definitely seems to be a wall here with collapse either side. Also the soils around this are quite charcoal-rich so we seem to have come down onto a good occupation level here.

Cutting 4 following removal of sod

Cutting 5 is producing a good range of finds from the initial clean back (after the sod was removed). Lots of clay pipe fragments (probably 17^th century) are popping up as well as glazed and un-glazed pottery! Its safe to say that the item in the top left of the finds tray might be a bit more recent though…

Finds tray from clean back in Cutting 5

First Week on site at Monea Castle

First day on site and everything is going grand. 

Christina, Camilla, Marie-Therese and Tony started de-sodding and digging Cuttings 4 and 5 just south of the castle and things are already looking promising!. 

We may have the remnants of a wall in Cutting 4 as suggested in the geophysical survey while a number of finds have been recovered from the topsoil in Cutting 5 including clay pipe fragments, slag, iron nails, and pottery fragments. 

Looking forward to more interesting discoveries tomorrow.

Geophysical survey at Monea Castle

The results of the geophysical survey are just in for Monea! 

Joanna Leigh, the geophysical expert for this project, has identified a number of very interesting below-ground features in her survey. It looks like there may have been an old path running from the north-east to the south-west across the area while a number of linear anomalies just to the south of the castle give the impression that there may be ruined walls and pits in this area. We are also hoping that a group of strong responses to the west of the castle are the remains of ruined buildings – there are lots of stones sticking out of the ground in this particular area!

The proof in the pudding will be when we start to dig our Cuttings but there certainly seems to be lots to investigate.

Interpretation of geophysical survey results by J.M. Leigh Surveys

Aerial photograph of Monea Castle (Google Earth, April 2010)

Year Three: Monea Castle, Co. Fermanagh

We are in the third and final year of the Ulster Scots Archaeological Project and this year we will be investigating Monea Castle in Co. Fermanagh. The castle is located within the Castletown Demesne lands c. 860m east of Monea village and 9km WNW of Enniskillen. It stands at the bottom of a steep hill on a small plateau above a lake which contains a crannóg (FER 191:062). Excavations in the late 19th century found the crannóg, ancient site of the Maguires, to be composed almost entirely of timber. Excavation on the shore of the site revealed the remains of a conical iron helmet associated with animal bone and iron slag. The surrounding landscape has been occupied since the prehistoric period, as indicated by c. 11 burnt mound sites and 8 raths or enclosures within a 1km radius of the castle.

Site Location - Monea Castle

The castle comprises one of the best known and best preserved examples of a plantation era building. The lands of the proportion of Derrinefogher were granted to Robert Hamilton by King James in 1610. Building commenced on the castle (not the bawn) in 1616 by the Rector of Devenish, the Reverend Malcolm Hamilton. 

Monea Castle, facing north-east

In 1619, the castle was described by Pynnar as "a strong castle of lime and monea castle stone being 54 feet long and 20 feet broad". The castle is oblong in plan and three storeys high. From the angle of the west end rise two semi-cylindrical towers with box-like turrets, both of which have spiral staircases. The bawn, comprising "a wall 9 feet in height and 300 feet in circuit" was added in 1622/3. It was noted by Annesley and Perrott in 1622 that the castle was thatched (SMR record). At this time it is recorded that a market was held upon the Monday of each week, in the ‘village of Castleton, in the proportion of Dirrefogher’ (Belmore 1895a, 207).

Plan of the castle (Jope, 1951)

The castle was taken by the Irish, led by Captain Rory Maguire, during the 1641 Rebellion but was later reclaimed by planters. Following the hostile takeover of nearby Tully Castle all occupants were ordered to flee to Monea Castle or ‘Iniskellin’ (Belmore 1895b, 258). Monea does not appear to have been badly damaged at this time.

Extract from the Down Survey Map of Magheraboy Barony showing Monea Castle

By 1688 the castle became the residence of Gustav Hamilton (grandson son of Malcolm Hamilton) who by then was the Governor of Enniskillen and Fermanagh forces (Belmore 1895b, 260). Following 1704 Gustav’s eldest son, William, appears to have sold/granted the Manor of Castletown to Hugh Montgomery (of Derrygonnelly, Co. Fermanagh) and Robert King (of Lissenhall, Swords). King appears to have taken Castletown, (alias Monea), with the house and customs, together with the fairs and markets (Belmore 1895b, 264).

King's share of the estate appears to have descended to his daughter and heiress, Mary, who married William Smyth of the Drumcree family in Westmeath. Smyth served as High Sheriff of Fermanagh in 1736 (ibid., 265). A record in the SMR states that the castle was burnt in c. 1750.

Belmore (1895b) considered it is likely that the estate changed hands from the Smyth to the Brien family. John Brien from Tyrone built a house in the demesne after 1790 (SMR record) and ‘Monea Cottage’ is shown on the first edition OS map c. 400m north of the castle.

Extract from the First Edition 6-inch OS map showing Monea Castle

A geophysical Survey has been undertaken within the grounds of the scheduled area and the results will be shared in a blog post next week. We hope to undertake a research excavation during May 2014 to investigate the early-mid 17th century tenants settlement associated with the plantation castle. Any updates will be posted here in future weeks.

References:

Belmore 1895a Monea Castle, County Fermanagh, and the Hamiltons. Ulster Journal of Archaeology, 1 (3), 195–208.

Belmore 1895b Monea Castle, County Fermanagh, and the Hamiltons. With Some Notes on the Hume and Cathcart Families (concluded). Ulster Journal of Archaeology, 1 (4), 256–277

Jope, E.M. 1951 Scottish Influences in the North of Ireland: Castles with Scottish Features, 1580-1640. Ulster Journal of Archaeology, 14, 31–47.

Excavation completed at Derrywoone

Well the excavation finished last week and all that was really left to do on the last day was to pack up the archive and back fill all the trenches.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the school children, teachers, volunteers and interested parties who visited the dig over the past five weeks and made this project such a success.

We would also like to thank Baronscourt Estate managers Robert and Matt and the Duke and Duchess of Abercorn for their hospitality and for kindly granting permission for the excavation.

As post-excavation analyses and research continues we will keep the blog updated with any important findings!