EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Kildare
‘Maynooth Castle’ (Maynooth td.), Co. Kildare
Early Medieval Unenclosed House.
Grid Ref: N92683867 (292687/238678)
SMR No: KD005-015
Excavation Licence: 96E391
Excavation Duration/Year: 1996; 1997; 1998; 1999.
Site Director: A. Hayden (Archaeological Projects Ltd.)
Excavations were undertaken for a number of seasons at the keep of Maynooth Castle.
During this a number of archaeological features were discovered under the sub-floor level of
the keep, relating to early medieval occupation. Four main structures were identified from
this period – a rectangular building; a roundhouse; a corn-drying kiln; and a roundhouse with
attached palisade.
A rectangular structure was identified, outlined by a series of postholes, stakeholes and slot
trenches (Fig. 173). The east wall measured 4.8m, with a 0.8m gap in the centre, flanked by
large postholes, which represents the doorway. The remaining walls of this structure are not
so clearly recognisable.
A couple of roundhouses were also identified beneath the keep. These are not synchronous,
and the later roundhouse appears to have been associated with an attached palisade trench.
This is the clearest pre-keep structure, and consists of a single arc of stakeholes for a wattlewalled
house, 5m in internal diameter. A double series of stakeholes at the east of the house
has been interpreted as a replaced section of walling. A central posthole, and a set of four
internal postholes, was interpreted as holding roof supports; and a series of stakeholes,
inside the building, were interpreted as the remains of an internal division. Both of these
roundhouses had associated central hearths.
A keyhole-shaped corn-drying kiln was also discovered beneath the keep. Carbonised grains
of oat and barley were recovered from its fill.
The final phase of the pre-keep activity appears to have been agricultural, with a number of
cultivation ridges visible. These appear to avoid the last roundhouse, and may therefore be
associated with this phase of occupation. The roundhouse associated with the palisade is
stratigraphically the most recent sub-keep structure, therefore it must be assumed that the
rectangular house is prehistoric, probably Neolithic. The corn-drying kiln is also overlain by
cultivation ridges, and it may be assumed that it is contemporary with the last roundhouse.
Finds from the cultivation layer include prehistoric material (waste flint; half a stone axe
head; a stone mace head), and early medieval material (a bead of jet/lignite, and a few
corroded objects of bronze and iron).
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