15th-Century Irish Town Found Near Medieval Castle

15th-Century Irish Town Found Near Medieval Castle

According to a recent excavation, the medieval Dunluce Castle, situated on the craggy rocks of Northern Ireland’s coast, is neighbors with a mysterious stone settlement.

The castle dates back to the 15th century and once housed the powerful MacQuillan family, which in Northern Ireland ruled a great deal of territory.

The Northern Ireland Environment Agency aimed to unearth a portion of the abandoned 17th century town of Dunluce near the castle during a recent excavation. Instead, archaeologists found an older village dated from the 15th and 16th centuries.

“This is an extremely exciting historical creation,” said Mark Durkan, the environment minister of Northern Ireland, in a statement. “Building traces were found near the cliffs where the castle was built.

These buildings most likely formed a small settlement, just outside the original castle gate.”

The settlement’s remains include a stone structure with a doorway at its corner, “which is quite different to the 17th century buildings revealed to date,” Durkan said.

Through radiocarbon dating, the researchers determined that a fireplace inside was used in the late 15th century, about the same time that the MacQuillans lived in Dunluce Castle.

“We are extremely lucky to make this exciting discovery,” Durkan said. “Very few 15th-century buildings, other than those built entirely from stone, have survived in Ulster and normally there would be few traces, if any, for archaeologists to investigate.”

The archaeologists also found pottery that dates back to the late medieval period, which raises questions about the settlement’s relationship to the early inhabitants of Dunluce, experts said.

“Up to now, we knew there was a substantial 17th century settlement in the fields around Dunluce,”Durkan said.

“What we are now beginning to uncover are traces of earlier and extensive late medieval settlement activity, which are equally as important as the remains of the 17th century Dunluce Town.

This provides an exciting new avenue of research to explore as part of our future investigations at Dunluce.”

The government of Northern Ireland plans to continue the excavation of the town at Dunluce and the castle’s gardens with money from the Heritage Lottery Fund.