Hall of the Red Earl

The following summary has been derived from Delany (2004, 164-78) to which the reader is referred for a fuller account. Archaeological excavations undertaken at the Custom House during the period 1997-9 uncovered significant medieval structural remains including those of a high medieval hall (GA094-100041-), the eastern corner of a 13th-century castle (GA094-100069-), a limekiln (GA094-100070- ) and a smelting works (GA094-100071-) that operated in the late and post-medieval periods. A very large quantity of artefacts (11,553) and environmental material was also recovered. The excavations were confined to two separate areas of the site. The eastern area, bordering on Druid Lane, comprised the hall, smelting works and an adjoining laneway; the area to the west was in a 19th-century warehouse building where the remains of the castle and kiln were uncovered.

The remains of the medieval hall comprised sections of the buttressed north-eastern and south-western walls with opposing doorways and the remnants of three centrally placed, octagonal stone columns. Evidence for the gable walls was not uncovered as these lay outside the area available for excavation and, in consequence, the full extent of the building is unknown. It was in excess of 14m long and c. 7.7m wide internally. The north-eastern and south-western walls (T 0.95m; H 0.75–1.50m) were constructed of roughly hewn, angular, migmatite boulders and red sandstone with a rubble core and were faced in roughly arranged, alternate random courses of blocky boulders and smaller, angular stones. They rested on a roughly constructed plinth that projected 0.20m from the base of the wall. The opposing doorways were both 1.90m wide internally, with the threshold 0.35m above the plinth. The jambs of the south-western door consisted of chamfered limestone blocks, and the basal stones had a rounded stop-chamfer. Both the jambs and the ingoing were bonded with a white gravel-and-lime mortar, similar to that used in the buttresses. The use of diagonal tooling on the jambs suggests a pre-14th-century date for this door, but it had clearly been altered at a later date. Only a single basal jamb of the north-eastern door survived. It was a dressed, chamfered limestone block with a stop-chamfer and diagonal tooling on all of its exposed faces. The ingoing was straight and formed of randomly coursed migmatite boulders and a roughly hewn limestone block. The mortar used in the doorway construction was similar to that used in the walls, suggesting that they were contemporaneous.

A series of buttresses constructed of randomly coursed, roughly hewn migmatite boulders and limestone blocks had been built against the exterior walls of the hall. The buttresses measured 1.4m by 1.15m and rested on substantial boulder plinths. A white/grey gravel-and-lime mortar was common to all and there were also traces of lime render on each of them. The use of limestone and different mortar, and the fact that one of them slightly overlapped the eastern doorway, indicates that the buttresses belonged to a second phase of construction at the hall.

The roof of the hall had been carried by a centrally aligned row of octagonal stone columns, three of which were uncovered during the excavation. The north-western one was the best preserved, with three surviving tiers. Only the base and foundation of the central column survived, and the one in the south-west was partly destroyed in the 19th/20th century. The punch-dressing on the columns suggests a 14th- or 15th-century date for them, and it is likely that they replaced earlier wooden supports, although no evidence of these was found during the excavation. Several areas of a crude and uneven stone floor were excavated in the interior of the hall. There were no surviving stratified layers in the hall. There was no indication as when the hall went out of use but the interior was reused as a smelting area in the 16th century (see GA094-10071-).

This structure may perhaps be identified with the stone house mentioned in an inquisition taken in 1333. In 1556 it was noted as ‘the ruined house called Erles stone’ and again, in 1636, as the old house called ‘Clogh-In-Early’. It is not depicted on any map of the city other than the mid-17th century pictorial map where it is represented as a church-like structure having large, round-headed windows and what appears to be a cross on its intact south-eastern gable: it is named in the map index as the ‘The old buildings of the illustrious Lord, Richard de Burgo, the Red Earl.’ A county courthouse was built on this site in 1686 and appears to have been built directly on the foundations of the medieval hall (Prunty and Walsh 2016, 25, 43). The progression from medieval hall to county courthouse to custom house uniquely indicates continuity of public ownership of this site from the 13th century to the present day.