Kiln in Carrickmines Great

Breen (2012, 58-67) recorded the following details about the excavated kilns (F187) from Trench T5 at Carrickmines Castle (DU026-005001-); 'The earliest medieval features excavated at Carrickmines were located in the area immediately south-west of the unexcavated ‘island’. These features have been divided into two phases of undefended pre-castle structures, comprising two possible building structures [DU026-005008/009-] with related kiln (medieval phase 1) and a horizontal mill [DU026-005004-] with associated features (medieval phase 2). The features which compose the horizontal mill, with its accompanying head- and tail-races, provide a clear stratigraphic watershed. The mill phase truncated two specific areas of early activity. One was represented by the kiln (features F868, F867 and F675) and the other was a large linear boundary ditch (F82). Whereas the kiln has been interpreted as belonging to the earliest phase of activity, associated with Structure A to the Southwest (phase 1), linear feature F82 appeared as an isolated feature which truncated Structure A and was cut by the headrace of the mill and therefore separated phases 1 and 2. The remains of the kiln were situated between Trenches 9 and 5, with the main body of the feature in T5. A second bowl feature, F675, abutted the western end of the primary bowl F868 and this was excavated simultaneously with F868 and its flue F867. This bowl was somewhat different in construction from F868/F867. Instead of a carefully constructed masonry wall the concave cut for the bowl was edged by a single course of natural boulders. The headrace of the mill had truncated most of this feature, however, making the relationship to F868 and the chronology of the two bowls difficult to assess. The two bowls were found to have a single cobbled (F1966) floor. It was cut by a drain (F4102). This floor is likely to be an earlier feature which survived by being re-used as the base of the kiln. The kiln was one of the earliest features present in the Southfield and could well be related to the activities associated with Structure A to the Southwest and Structure B to the North of the kiln. What is certain is that while the construction of the millrace badly damaged the kiln, the later feature, judging by the fact that it had been backfilled before the mill was created, had already been abandoned prior to the time that the mill was constructed. Since the evidence supports the interpretation of the mill as an early feature, which pre-dated both the revetted fosse and the secondary and tertiary fosses as well as the medieval moat F265/F75, the kiln is therefore earlier still. The first phase of the kiln The kiln bowl F868 The diameter of the cut, where it was clearly defined, was 3.80m NW–SE and 4.00m N–S. The internal diameter of the wall was a constant 2.50m, showing that it was carefully constructed. The brown/grey silt (C1640) used to firmly anchor the wall against the side of the cut varied in width along the perimeter. Its widest points were at both the eastern (1.00m) and the western (0.56m) ends of the feature at the point where the millrace truncated the kiln. Towards the north, where the bowl masonry became wider, C1640 was less apparent; this was also the case in the surviving south wall where the width of C1640 measured 0.20m. The masonry in the kiln bowl The remains of the circular-shaped masonry wall C2077/F1428 were of drystone construction and contained roughly-hewn, smaller, rounder stones with the edges facing in towards the centre of the kiln bowl being faced. The circle was not fully joined together but left a trapezoidal gap (measuring 0.28m–0.54m–0.64m from S to N) in the north-west to allow for the flue, which extended to a maximum of 2.66m to the north-west. Although smaller, fist-sized stones were used to fill the crevices between the larger blocks, the wall had no rubble core and was built as a revetment on to the edge of the cut. The masonry was randomly coursed but of high quality and it survived as a 0.60m–0.55m tall structure in three parts. The wall was uneven in thickness throughout its length, measuring 0.80m at widest in the NW, west of the flue gap and 0.12m at its narrowest point where the millrace truncated the masonry in the NE. The average width of the surviving section to the north of the millrace did however remain between 0.40 and 0.60m, whereas the width in the section of the wall that survived south of the headrace was measured to between 0.28m-0.48m. The narrowest measurements occurred at the points where the millrace truncated the feature and it was therefore most likely that 0.28m did not represent the total width of this part of the feature. It might be suggested that 0.48m was closer to the average width. The sections of the wall that were destroyed and robbed out could partially have been used as backfill (C2078) of the bowl subsequent to its abandonment. The part of the wall that existed furthest south later functioned as part of the southern edge of the millrace F783 and some of the rubble from the destroyed wall was also found in the base of this feature. There was evidence to suggest that the height of the wall as it existed at the time of excavation was the original height. What appeared to be remains of a superstructure survived on top of the wall in three separate contexts (C1311, C1854 and C2074 excavated on the northern surviving part of the wall in T10 and two contexts, C1486 and C1487, excavated on the southern remaining part of wall in T5). These five separate deposits of heavily oxidised clay appear to have been part of a clay-covered frame, possibly constructed of wicker or other organic material. It is possible that some of the daub material and maybe even the entire superstructure frame could have collapsed repeatedly during the time the kiln was in use and that the different layers of daub and charcoal are evidence of several phases of activity. Another possibility is that parts of the superstructure could have fallen into the bowl, without the entire frame collapsing. On top of C2139, which was the last destruction context of the feature, the remaining cavity in the bowl had been intentionally backfilled, first by C2141, a mottled coloured and mixed layer of sandy silt/sandy clay that contained frequent flecks of charcoal, oxidised and natural flecks of clay. On top of this a layer of large stones (C2078), possibly resulting from the destruction of the bowl wall by the mill-race, had been dumped in. In between the crevices of these stones, three layers of naturally deposited silts and clays filled the remainder of the bowl. During the creation of the headrace of the mill some time later, some of the dug-out material (C1308) became re-deposited on top of the bowl and parts of the flue. The superstructure of the bowl The evidence of heavily burnt and oxidised clay, both situated on top of the bowl wall F1428/C2077 and as deposits within the bowl and large amounts of charcoal around the edge of the bowl in the destruction layers, points to an organic superstructure covered with clay. This superstructure may have been a wickerwork dome. The remains of clay on top of the wall (C1311, C1854, C2074, C1486 and C1487) suggest that the frame was placed on top of the wall and then secured to it by the clay on both the outside and inside. The clay would have prevented the frame from catching fire and because of its exposure to intense heat it changed to a dark red/orange colour as the particles became oxidised. The clay used for this had probably been cleaned and likely tempered with gravel and coarse sand. Whether the entire frame would have been covered in clay is not certain, but patches of oxidised clay appeared to have fallen into the bowl both during the final destruction of the kiln and also during use. Several layers inside the bowl show evidence of similar soil composition and concentrations of charcoal were detected around the inner circumference of the