What is recorded here
Indicated, Kilteel Upper is a large stone bawn beside a tower house and gatehouse in County Kildare, Ireland. Its thin walls still rise three metres in places, enclosing a farmyard where lean-to buildings press against the old line. Medieval pottery found nearby suggests the area remained busy long after the fortress fell out of front-page history.
Part of a National Monument (No. 275). A large, sub-rectangular area (dims. max. L c. 60m E-W; max. Wth c. 40m) is defined by a tower house (KD020-006----) and adjoining gatehouse (KD020-006001-) on its W side, off which stone walls run to NE and SW. The walls, although still high in places (H 3m) are thin (T 0.5m) and are not bonded to the tower house and gatehouse, but can be traced for their full course around the enclosed area, which is now used as a farmyard with lean-to buildings built against the enclosing wall along S. While possibly a modern rebuild, the wall may follow the course of an older bawn wall line, the presence of which is strongly suggested by the existence of the gate house and a doorway at first floor-level in the NE gable wall of the tower house possibly to give access to a wall walk on an adjoining bawn wall. In 2005, an archaeological assessment (Licence No. 05E0681: 'Excavations 2005' 2008, (No. 761) 186) and subsequent monitoring of topsoil removal in 2006 (Licence No. 06E2475, C159: 'Excavations 2006' 2009, (No. 965) 246) at a single-house development c. 70m SW of the monument uncovered some 20 sherds of pottery, 14 of which were medieval in date, including Leinster cooking ware, Dublin-type coarse ware and Dublin-type fine ware, with the remainder being post-medieval in date.
Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy
Date of upload: 10 June 2011
The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.
- What survives
- Recorded monument
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