Bawn in Carrickmines Great

Only the gatehouse and a section of curtain wall with external stone-revetted fosse and mural tower remains standing of the bawn that defended Carrickmines Castle (DU026-005001-) which was described in the 1654-56 Civil Survey of County Dublin as, 'the Walles of a Castle, an Orchard, and garden plott, a Bawne; the Buildings are Valued by the Jury at Tenn poundes' (Simington 1945, 270). According to this jury the Castle of Carrickmines which in 1640 belonged to 'Theobald Walsh', a Captain of a Foot Company in the Irish Army was 'a Mannor & kept Court Leet, the Tithes belong[ed] to Christ-Church [DU018-020270-]' (ibid.). Only the gatehouse remains standing of Carrickmines Castle and bawn which is located in the townland of Carrickmines Great (Carraig Mhaighin Mhór), in the parish of Tully in the barony of Rathdown. This gatehouse has been been incorporated into post-1700 farm outbuildings. The castle stands on low-lying terrain off the Golden Ball-Carrickmines Road, on the S side of a stream which marks the townland boundary with Carrickmines Little to the N and Brenanstown to the NE. A U-Shaped building with large enclosure attached to N side is depicted in the area of the medieval castle on Rocque's 1760 map of County Dublin where it is shown standing immediately W of a road which traverses the stream to NE. The castle appears to have been built to control this road and crossing point over the stream to the NE where Carrickmines Bridge is depicted on the 1st. ed. OSi 6-inch map. On this map the castle appears to the have stood to the N of a cluster of dwellings with a larger dwelling to the SSE. Excavations at Carrickmines castle have revealed a double fosse/double bank along the NW flank of the site. To the SE of the inner castle area is a stone-revetted fosse interpreted as part of the southern curtain wall. This enclosed an area of angular form and was connected to an earlier enclosure by a causeway. Two linear fosses identified c 60m to the S of the castle may represent some form of outer defence line. These contained Saintonge pottery which was made in the Saintonge region of France in the 13th and 14th centuries (Clinton 2002, 72; 2003, 85-7; 2004, 131). A Draft Conservation Plan of Carrickmines Castle 2015-2025, commissioned by Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council, recorded the following details about Carrickmines Castle; 'The site today consists of three areas, connected by modern half-round tunnels, effectively rendering it an island within a motorway. The site consists of post-medieval farm buildings and the fragmentary remains of part of a medieval gatehouse positioned between the M50 motorway and Glenamuck Road North. A post-medieval masonry bridge is located within a timber-walled enclosure in the roundabout at the bottom of Glenamuck Road North. Both areas are connected by halfround concrete tunnels which house the remains of the looping defences of Carrickmines including the surviving revetted stone fosse. The south-eastern enclosure was added last, and this re-used the eastern causeway of the south-western enclosure to allow passage between both areas. The south-eastern enclosure had three sets of defences (i.e. trivallate) with the innermost and central ditch cut into bedrock, and sections of the defences extending 217m in length65 revetted in granite. The south-eastern enclosure had the foundations of a rectangular structure which has been suggested as a gate tower controlling access into the site. This was the strongest of the three enclosures, and probably the ‘bawn’ later recorded by the Civil Survey in the seventeenth century. The defensive triple-ditched enclosures at Carrickmines had three entrances: a revetted causeway in the north-west corner which may have had a drawbridge between the inner and middle fosse; the gate house which formed part of the revetted stone fosse, a segment of which is still visible to the north of the farm buildings; and a staggered entrance at the south side of the rectangular enclosure crossing all three fosses, possibly with a wooden gate tower. A stretch of fosse survives to the north of the farm buildings, and extends beneath the Glenamuck Road overpass. The remains consist of a stone-revetted fosse wall with the remains of the foundations of a possible square mural tower beneath the overpass tunnel. The masonry is heavily overgrown. The eastern fosse consists of a stone-revetted fosse, extending from the south-east corner of the site and beneath the roundabout on Glenamuck Road (noted as structures F and G on the map above). The fosse is heavily overgrown with most of its length obscured by mature vegetation. The exposed granite masonry below the overpass tunnel is loose and requires consolidation' (Bolton 2015, 27, 30, 49-50). Bolton, J. 2015 Draft Carrickmines Castle Conservation Plan 2015-2025. DLR Co. Co., County Hall, Marine Road, Dún Laoghaire, County Dublin. See attached section of Rocque's 1760 County Map of Dublin showing Carrickmines and a cluster of dwellings standing on the S side of the river. See attached photos of map and plan showing location of the SE enclosure which has been interpreted as the possible bawn of Carrickmines Castle, courtesy Jason Bolton 2015, 21, 22, 27. See attached photograph of Castle gatehouse taken by Paddy Healy 27/03/1977, courtesy of South Dublin County Council, https://hdl.handle.net/10599/3639 - Copyright: South Dublin Libraries, Local Studies Collection, County Library, Town Centre, Tallaght, Dublin. Compiled by: Geraldine Stout and Padraig Clancy Revised by: Caimin O'Brien Date of revised upload: 30 December 2022