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Medieval castle unearthed in Maenclochog
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| Archaeologists excavate the medieval dog grave |
A team of professional and voluntary archaeologists have uncovered what seem to be the remains of a medieval castle in a north Pembrokeshire car park.
The dig, organised by PLANED, Cambria Archaeology and the National Park, and funded by the EU Transnational project, is taking place at the castle site in Maenclochog, beneath the village's car park.
So far excavators have uncovered what look to be the outer walls of a medieval castle, as well as post holes, the hearth of a medieval house and fragments of medieval pottery.
They have also discovered the skeleton of a dog, which archaeologists think is likely to be a family pet dating from the Middle Ages.
"When they first discovered bones the first thought was 'Oh my goodness it's a human,'" said PLANED's Christian Donovan, "But it is a dog.
"It looks like it was laid to rest carefully, which has lead the team to conclude that it was someone's pet."
She said that the discovery of the stone walls, dating from the early middle ages was really exciting .
"I don't think they expected to find that. It is looking as if it was a site for a medieval castle and possibly even a castle before that. We will know a lot more once the experts have had time to analyse the finds."
The dig came about after documentary research, commissioned by the local community forum, identified the possibility of a castle existing on the site.
"The information had been passed down the generations by word of mouth but nobody knew if it was really there," said Christian.
"The only way to find out was to dig."
Volunteer archaeologists, many from the local community, are being trained and are working alongside professionals from Cambria Archaeology.
Visitors to the site are given daily tours and children from local schools are also getting the chance to get their hands dirty.
"It's a living history lesson about what was in their community," said Christian.
Excavations at the site are continuing until September 30th.
2:19pm Monday 24th September 2007
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CommentPosted by: Philip Hughes, Maenclochog on 12:59pm Tue 16 Oct 07
Having seen first hand the excavations at Maenclochog car park I would just like to disagree that the site is a proven castle site.
The evidence is insufficient to draw such a conclusion.
The southern pit, alongside the derelict shed showed typical modern vertically aligned "slate"stone builds, constructed to allow soil to be impacted to allow for uninterrupted vertical pathways for hedgrerow roots to take hold.
Under this was a "wall" of unmortared stones typically used to build modern field boundaries. Witnesses from the village resident in the 1960's indicated that such a wall existed as the surrounding landscape was much lower than present as it has been infilled by the Council to construct the car park.
Underneath the layer of jumbled stone work, was another layer of laid flat stone work which might have been an older wall but so little of it was exposed it would be hard to say it is "castle".
Immediately adjacent to the "wall" the team excavated a cambered clay layer reminiscent of a roadway which if it were true, connects rather well to the main road through the village just before the T junction leading towards Narberth. On old maps this is marked up as roman road - this still is possible but unlikely without further evidence.
As regards the "dog" pit, the evidence of postholes is unconvincing however, the pairing patterns indicated a possible willow fence structure surrounding the hearth place burned red by successive open fires at the same stratigraphic level.
In short despite the enthusiasm of the volunteer and professional there is no convincing evidence of the mysterious Maenclochog castle at this site - YET!
Thanks for the interest though
Having seen first hand the excavations at Maenclochog car park I would just like to disagree that the site is a proven castle site.
The evidence is insufficient to draw such a conclusion.
The southern pit, alongside the derelict shed showed typical modern vertically aligned "slate"stone builds, constructed to allow soil to be impacted to allow for uninterrupted vertical pathways for hedgrerow roots to take hold.
Under this was a "wall" of unmortared stones typically used to build modern field boundaries. Witnesses from the village resident in the 1960's indicated that such a wall existed as the surrounding landscape was much lower than present as it has been infilled by the Council to construct the car park.
Underneath the layer of jumbled stone work, was another layer of laid flat stone work which might have been an older wall but so little of it was exposed it would be hard to say it is "castle".
Immediately adjacent to the "wall" the team excavated a cambered clay layer reminiscent of a roadway which if it were true, connects rather well to the main road through the village just before the T junction leading towards Narberth. On old maps this is marked up as roman road - this still is possible but unlikely without further evidence.
As regards the "dog" pit, the evidence of postholes is unconvincing however, the pairing patterns indicated a possible willow fence structure surrounding the hearth place burned red by successive open fires at the same stratigraphic level.
In short despite the enthusiasm of the volunteer and professional there is no convincing evidence of the mysterious Maenclochog castle at this site - YET!
Thanks for the interest though
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