Historic town in Newtown (shelmaliere West By., Carrick Ed)

The ringwork at Carrig (WX037-028002-) is described as the ‘castrum de Karrich’ in 1231-34, testifying to its continued use. A town had developed around the castle and manor of Carrig by 1307 when the castle, two watermills and the ferry were listed. In 1323-4, while the castle is described as vacant and ruinous the settlement continued, although depreciated in value and three burgages lacked tenants. From the amount of the rents in 1307 the settlement is likely to have had over a hundred burgesses, but there is no record of a charter and it was not walled (Orpen 1906). An inquisition of 1420 records that ‘the castle of Carrick with two tofts called ‘the Mille places’ of Carrick, with the watercourse belonging thereto, with other lands which are now only worth 10 shillings yearly, as they have been recently destroyed and burnt by Irish enemies and rebels’ (Hore 1906, 130). This refers to the two mills, which were probably located on the small S-N stream forming the boundary with the townlands of Park and Ballyboggan. A settlement with over 100 burgesses is likely to have occupied an extensive area along the ridge extending S from the ringwork, an area now cut by the N11 road and bypass of Wexford town, but its exact extent is not known. Archaeological testing (05E1405) on the E side of the N11 recovered evidence of medieval occupation in the form of a large ditch and pits with medieval pottery (McLoughlin 2006). A remote sensing survey (18R0099) was able to confirm the presence of extensive archaeological features at this location, although two ring-ditches suggest that prehistoric features might also be present, as is also intimated by the discovery of a pit burial with a collared urn (WX037-029----). The castle is also associated with a deerpark, which was located between Carrig and Wexford town. The deerpark is mentioned in the deforestation charter or 1231-4 (Orpen 1934, 56), and is remembered today in the townland name ‘Park’. The ferry continued until a bridge was built at this point at the end of the eighteenth century, but while the mills were mentioned again in 1399 and 1519 (Hore vol. 5, 126, 133) they are not recorded in the Civil Survey of 1654 (Simington 1953, 105) and their location is not now known. The town went into decline rapidly after 1307 as in 1324 an inquisition described the castle of Carryk as ruinous. Within the enclosure its hall and a chapel were described as roofless. Seven references survive from the early fourteenth century, after which a gap arises until Carrig is mentioned five times in the sixteenth century, but the castle is not recorded (Hore 1906, vol. 5, 33-4). An antiquarian footnote by J. Hooker in Holinshed’s ‘Chronicles of Ireland’ (1587, vol. 2, 11) and quoted by Orpen (1906, 34) describes the castle as ‘first made of rods and turfs, according to the manner in those daies, but since builded with stone, and was the strongest fort then in those parts of the land…but it was pulled down, defaced and raced, and so dooth still remaine’. (Bradley and King 1990, 65-72) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload; 18 November 2020