House — medieval in Cahirguillamore (smallcounty By.)

In pasture, on the former deer park of Cahir Guillamore demesne, 125m W of a townland boundary with Rockbarton. Within southern portion of field system (LI031-041001-) and within deserted medieval settlement (LI031-041009-), to the immediate S of House 1 (LI031-041007-). Not depicted on OSi historic maps. According to Dowd (1896, 80), this house forms part of an extensive settlement that ‘…have been assumed to be the foundations of extensive buildings, and modern work refers to them as being “the remains of an ancient city of great extent”. Upstanding monument identified as a rectangular-shaped earthwork on aerial image and annotated on key to aerial image (Ó Ríordáin and Hunt 1942, 40-41; Figures 1 and 2, to N of Fort A). Ó Ríordáin and Hunt (ibid, 47-49) refers to this monument as House 2 and describes it as: ‘This house lay to the south of House I and roughly parallel to it. Its dimensions were less, 32' 3" x 18' 3", (9.8m x 5.6m) and its centre slightly further west than the centre of the other. There was, therefore, a small "yard" in the angle formed by the south wall of House I and the east wall of House II. As in House I, the floor was the natural limestone rock surface. The depth of spill and humus covering it was slightly greater in this house, and the floor sloped gently downwards from the south west to the north-east. A long central fault, 18" to 24" (5.5m to 7.3m) wide, occupied almost the entire length of the line of the major axis, with the exception of 5' (1.5m) near the west end. The floor was levelled with dark habitation deposit and pebbles in the cracks in the out crop, and towards the north-east, over the lowest part of the floor, a rough paving of flat stones had been laid down. This covered the long central fault, and ran through the doorway where it was continuous with the paving covering the floor of the passage between the two houses. Several fragments of quern stones had been used in this paving, an almost complete, though broken, stone forming part of the threshold of the doorway. The hearth lay in the centre of the house, over the long fault in the floor, which was completely filled in this area with the fine reddish ash, and must have been used as a sunken hearth before it became filled up. The walls differed both in plan and construction from those of House I. In plan they were straight with sharp square angles but the east wall widened considerably from north to south. Smaller stones were used in their construction than were found in House I. These were not so well and closely laid, and had collapsed to a greater extent. In the widest part of the east wall, close to the south corner there was no facing at all, the wall merely consisting of a mass of small stones, and this faulty construction had caused it to slip and disintegrate. The most noticeable difference in construction, however, was that the foundations of the walls were not on the bedrock but on the dark habitation deposit of fine soil. This was particularly apparent in the western portion of the passage between the two houses, where the foundation of House I was on the yellow clay, while the wall of House II rested on the dark layer covering this clay and stopping against the wall of House I. The dark layer occurred everywhere below the found ations, and was, on the south side, from 4" to 8" (1.2-2.4m) thick (PL III, 3). In this region, on the south-east, was a pit in the rock filled In this region, on the south-east, was a pit in the rock filled with bones and black soil, on the edge of which the wall ran, and this, together with the poor footings, may have caused a settle ment or movement in the wall, as a buttress had been built in this position against the south-east corner projecting eastwards. The foundations of this buttress were as poor as those of the wall itself and stood also on the black deposit. The door of the house was in the north wall, approximately in a similar position to the main door of House I, and, like it, was narrower on the exterior. The walls, however, in the vicinity of the jambs were of normal thickness and had not been strengthened or buttressed. No post holes were found in the interior of this house, nor was there any indication of a partition. The cobbled pavement of the passage between the houses continued over the "yard." Under this paving was a large pit 9' 3" (2.8m) by more than 10' 0" (3m), extending from the east wall of House II, which was built on the edge of it, and disappearing under the unexcavated area to the east. It was 36" (0.91m) deep below the bedrock floor and was filled with a fine dark black soil containing much bone. Monument identified as a rectangular-shaped earthwork on black and white aerial photographs marked ‘X’ and numbered 8 (SMR File). Also visible on OSi orthoimages taken 2005-2012, on Digital Globe orthoimages taken 2011-2013 and on Google Earth orthoimage taken 24/09/2018. See attached Google Earth orthoimage taken 24/09/2018, black and white aerial image with Houses 1 and 2 marked ‘X’ and numbered 8 (Ó Ríordáin & Hunt 1942, 39) and key to aerial image marked Figure 2 and numbered ‘X’ to N of Fort A (ibid, 40). Compiled by: Alison McQueen and Vera Rahilly Date of upload: 5 November 2020