Bawn in Court (kenry By.)

Westropp (1906-07, 162) recorded the following details about Cullam Castle (LI012-041---) and bawn; ‘The northern wall stands near the Maigue; but all its features are defaced. The lower story was vaulted. It had a bawn'. Earthworks of a bawn and formal gardens or walled garden visible on OSi orthoimage taken 2005-11 to N and S of castle with roadway to W. The ruins of Cullam Castle (LI012-041----) and bawn were drawn in the 18th century and published in the Groses's Antiquities of Ireland where the N wall of the castle stood three storeys high with vaulted ground floor and polygonal shaped angle tower on NW angle with partial remains of upstanding bawn wall visible to W and N of tower. In 2005, Frank Coyne, of Aegis Archaeology Ltd carried out excavations under licence No. 05E1009 which were summarised as following; 'Test-trenching was undertaken in advance of a proposed development at Court townland, Kildimo, Co. Limerick. The proposed development may impact on a castle/tower-house [LI012-041----], now surviving as a pile of rubble, which is located on the site. A short, standing portion of the castle wall was identified during the testing and associated earthworks were also investigated at that time. A total of eight trenches were inserted on the site of the tower-house. Four were placed in the area of the pile of rubble, to ascertain if any remains of the original tower-house survived. It was found that a portion of the northern wall of the castle remains intact, to a maximum height of 2.4m, and c. 6m in length, east-west, although a 2m-wide breach occurs in the centre of this. From the testing, it does not appear that the west, south and east walls survive. These appear to have been demolished in recent years, as modern plastic was found underneath the rubble. However, the original floor of the tower-house was identified as a light, sandy-gravel rectangular area, which was markedly different to the immediate external ground surface. The tower-house is surrounded by a series of low earthworks, which appear to be associated with it, and which were identified in Trenches 6, 7 and 8. These take the form of low gravel and stone banks, forming a bawn or enclosure area to the north and east of the tower-house, with a possible entrance/exit opening to the north. A portion of one of these banks extends to the north-west of the remains of the tower-house. No earthworks were identified to the west of the castle; however, a possible humic layer in Trench 5 may indicate unenclosed activity associated with the tower-house. All trenches produced animal bone or pottery sherds, some of which would be contemporary with the date of use of the site, from the 16th to mid-17th century' (www.excavations.ie). See attached drawing of castle and bawn taken from Antiquities of Ireland. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 19 November 2020