Site of Castle — Shinrone

According to local information the area where castle is depicted on OS 6-inch map is known as Bawnmore (Cooke 1875, 187; O' Flanagan 1933, vol. 2, 77-8). The site of the castle was recorded at being to the rear of Mr Dancer's house, in 2003 the Archaeology Company discovered that a short section of the bawn wall of this castle survived to the rear of this house which fronts on to the Main St. at Shinrone. Archaeological monitoring was carried out in the vicinity of the bawn wall by Ellen O'Carroll and Nicola Rohan on behalf of the Archaeology Company in 2004 under licence no. 04E0168. According to this report the bawn wall may have been constructed in 1622 when it is recorded that the owner of the castle Donagh Mac Guilfoyle started to build a wall around this castle. The 17th century bawn wall has been fenced off and has been retained as the S boundary of the development. During the monitoring a circular feature was uncovered 5.3m from the bawn wall and 0.7m from the southern foundation trench of House 1. The circular feature measured 1.9m in diameter. This feature may be an infilled pit, well or garden feature and is potentially archaeological but will not be impacted upon by the development and will therefore be preserved in situ. (O'Carroll, E and Rohan, N. 2004, Archaeological monitoring at Main St. Shinrone, Co. Offaly. Unublished excavation report) Monitoring took place under licence no. 04E0168 at Main Street, Shinrone, Co. Offaly. The proposed development lies within the curtilage of a protected structure and the site includes the site of a castle (OF042-025----). Monitoring was carried out of topsoil-stripping and the excavation of foundation trenches in the walled garden. Two semi-detached houses will be constructed in this area, which is located c. 22m west of the site of the castle. The northern and eastern boundary walls of the garden were demolished. Part of the bawn wall of the castle survives in the southern boundary wall. Fencing was erected surrounding the bawn wall as requested in the planning condition. A potential archaeological feature, which will not be impacted upon by the development, was uncovered within House 1, located at the southern side of the site. It comprised a circular deposit filled with loose medium-brown sandy gravel with occasional mortared fragment inclusions. It may be an infilled pit, well or garden feature. Very truncated features associated with the walled garden, which are relatively modern, were uncovered during the course of topsoil-stripping. No archaeological features were impacted upon during the groundworks phase. A final phase of monitoring is proposed for groundworks associated with the entrance at the north of the site (O'Carroll 2007, 370-1). The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Offaly' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 23 April 2009