Technically, Swords Castle isn’t a castle. It’s a fortified house which once belonged to the first Anglo-Norman Archbishop of Dublin, John Comyn, and was built around 1200. The “castle” underwent a few different iterations, first as a wooden palisade and then a stone structure. It’s interesting because the “palace” did house the archbishop’s own knights, a separate tower for the Constable (who was responsible for the day to day running of the location – as the Archbishop mostly came in Summer or on through trips), and had a banqueting hall to the right (now a ruin) and a multi story chapel (once located where the one story chapel from the 13th century is today). The site not only held regular “judicial” practices for the region but also held an ecclesiastical court.

After Robert The Bruce came through Ireland in 1317, parts of the fortified house / palace began falling in disrepair. Use of other parts of the site, however, continued until the 15th century as there are records of retired archbishops being stationed here. Eventually, the castle was sold on to a family and used as parts of orchards.

Today, the castle is undergoing a series of 2 week long community participation Archaeological digs supervised by Fingal Community Archaeologist: Christine Baker. You can find out more about when they are held and participate yourself much like I did for two days:

http://www.fingal.ie/planning-and-buildings/heritage-in-fingal/swordscastledigginghistory/

The archaeology is in preparation for renovations to be held on the site (some of the modern buildings along the street are to be pulled down) and to allow for further discovery and historical preservation of the location. I decided to join the dig for 2 days and was placed into the third trench. There were two other trenches –

Trench 1: looking for the remains of the great hall

Trench 2: Looking for the edges of the chapel, and a middle ages floor

The map below might help give an idea of the layout:

Starting out, Trench 3 it was dry, cool, and decent weather. Stephen, the archaeologist seen in the picture, gave us 2 meters instead of the 3 we had planned, because we were short on people power.

And so it was we got stuck in. We had to remove the Sod off the top – and place it to the side in “brick” shaped piles. This took until Lunch.

After lunch, We started gradually digging down, layer by layer.

By the third layer, we started getting a few finds. There were bits of pottery, slate roof tiles, and yes, even bone.

While I was there, we found several pieces of bone fragment, roof slates, medieval tiles, pottery, and lots of bits of metal (see the pictures).

Pottery rim

bottle glass

a few Human and animal bones

Can you see the slate roof tiles here?

At the end of the day, we documented where we were, and packed up to head home. Tomorrow, Day two, from Swords Castle.