The Lost Castle Of Dunrum: Norman Empire Remains | Time Team | Timeline

welcome to Dundrum one of the most picturesque locations in the whole of Northern Ireland but 800 years ago this stunning castle was the stronghold of a renegade Knight from Somerset [Music] and this castle is built on the stuff of mysteries who built it and why clearly there was once much more to done run than these ruins but nobody knows exactly when it was built or even what it originally looked like we'll go underground underground that is not gonna stop the point of this sword and fight to the death to reveal this castle secrets Oh lovely and we're poised and ready for the challenge [Music] County down northern ireland 9 a.m. our mission pieced together when this castle was built and what it originally looked like and barring the odd technical hitch most of the team are raring to go well this is all very impressive but I pass a cup of Earl Grey well the digging team are down there bracing themselves with some early-morning fortification they diehards the brains of the team are trying to work out where to put in the first trenches we're working alongside the guys from Queens University Belfast this time so working with comm is going to make it dead easy for you isn't it Francis we've got a bit of a nightmare of a site here Tony I mean it's this fabulous castle but to be quite honest we know very very little about it but we do know some things don't we call it we do know some things back in the nineteen fifties when the the site became a Steve Kerr Monument there was some excavation up here and the Unruh Ward and not-dead revealed evidence of earlier structures it may be a campaign fortification belonging to the anglo-norman the consensus between the three of us that probably what we ought to do is reopen one you're grimacing why is it that whenever we come to a site like this rather than put in our own trenches first of all we have to read Icke someone else history so the easiest way to do it is to work from a known to an unknown we know where that trench is we can then work out from there yeah this is a protected monument right we have a limited square metre age that we're allowed to dig but if we open an earlier trench that doesn't count I never knew that if you read someone else's train she didn't count as part of your allotted square meter each girl has persuaded me [Laughter] seriously though it's unusual to come to a Norman castle with such little previous excavation 60 years ago archaeologists unearthed what they thought could be the earliest phase of the castle to test the theory fills reopening their trench here and there's a real sense of urgency to the team most 12th century Norman castles started life not as stone structures but as a temporary earth and defense fingers crossed Phil might find that in his trench now we're all satisfied that we got it defined yeah we want to empty out Dundrum castle lies 20 miles south of Belfast overlooking the gorgeous County Down coast people have been drawn here for centuries and as Norman castles go it's got all the usual ingredients there's a curtain wall encircling a courtyard the gatehouse and a stone keep so what exactly is the big mystery here the mystery is when you actually look at this plan and you look around here you see that you've got this great big open area up here at the very heart of the castle complex what we'd be expecting to see would be maybe a stable granary maybe a chapel there'd be maybe a stone Hall there'd be other elements of that story that what's going on here in the 12th 13th century and they're not here you've got the Cape you have the keep but again we don't really know the date of that keep the original castle may have just comprised an inclusion wall and that might have been the first phase of activity after the the Normans come here it does seem to me that the thing that you guys want to work out more than anything else is the chronology I think that's not absolutely true I think that what you've got here is this wonderful site but it is little understood which leaves us with two mysteries to solve what was once here and what date are the structures you will still see there's no stopping Cole as he turns his expertise to the standing remains in search of answers meanwhile time teams GF is maestro's have been deployed on a mission to locate the castles missing buildings using ground-penetrating radar but so far their fancy technology can't tell the difference between man-made structure and bedrock not that Francis has much sympathy I would like to see the whole thing done by the end of day three by the end of day one such a nice guy as they press on time teams Raksha Dave is attempting archeological keyhole surgery it's not straight on to bedrock though is it the Carson sits on a natural rocky outcrop she's testing whether a blob on the GF is is bedrock or structure I think even if it is bedrock you've got to go down at least 1/2 meters to confirm it good job it's a tiny trench because John isn't really playing the chivalrous Knight he's not quite on a par with the legendary Norman knight who according to history books built Dundrum castle [Music] John de Courcey was born in Somerset his grandfather had been part of William the Conqueror's entourage Finbar what sort of man was John de Courcey how would you describe him well there's a very very good description of him from Jaret of Wales who was a contemporary chronicler and he describes him as been fair-haired and tall with bony and sinewy limbs his frame was lanky and he had a very strong physique immense bodily strength and an extraordinary bold temperament it's just pretend this is done he was incredibly impressive warrior and when was Gerald of Wales writing Gerald of Wales had met him so this is a one-to-one description it's fun isn't it how that echoed down the ages because this is from Mark Twain's The Prince and the pauper hundreds of years later and he uses this character Nordic Orson says now in the tower later Lord de Courcey the mightiest arm in England was he really thought of in that way as the mightiest arm in England yes even when he was alive the things you were doing were so adventurous that he was regarded as greater than any of the other contemporary Knights at the time in the mid 12th century England was under the Norman rule of Henry the second island was made up of warring independent kingdoms Henry stepped in sending over Norman knights to restore order and force the Irish to accept him as king but John de Courcey who arrived in 1171 was a renegade with bigger ambitions for himself [Music] as the second-born Sam he didn't stand to inherit the family fortune Island was his golden ticket he was looking for fame fortune and land the Normans really wanted land to pop everything else but when we first hear of him he's in Dublin and he's raising an army and he amasses an army of 300 soldiers and 22 Knights and strikes out north we know that he went up as far as Antrim and he built the castle and Carrickfergus so in a sense he but he built a little mini state here isn't it he built a mini state he ran his own affairs he had his own mint he made his own coins and very unusually and the King might have liked that he didn't put the Kings head on the coin he put st. patrick's head on the coins for several years henry was blissfully unaware of de courses actions and this desperate dan rebel lived the life of a self-styled master of the area for 25 years but why choose Dundrum to make his mark landscape archeologists two Danes worth has been scouring the area for clues and now he's back Francis wants answers you need to be able to protect yourself while your campaign you need somewhere that's safe and secure but you also need somewhere that dominates the landscape around this choice of Hill is absolutely perfect for both those reasons you've got visibility all the way at this coastline so you can control shipping as it were from here but also look at the view all around you you can see for miles and miles and miles complete control of this landscape but people in that landscape view come to conquer as it were they can see you up on up on this hill [Music] once here de Courcey needed to defend himself from the warrior-like and fearsome Irish [Music] so Stuart's next task is to map the castles defenses while the archaeologists try and work out what the course he originally built here and when called in time teams pottery guru Paul bling corn to date his first find oh it's all decorate lovely beginning to feel justified in medieval oh that's nice yeah that's that's Cheshire that's sort of 13 14th century its place called Ashton just to the north of Chester this stuff is that sort of stuff you expect to find in order you find a lot of English pottery on the East Coast I mean it's it's a supply lines and wash out a jug yeah it's probably coming up towards the neck of a joke you've got sort of just at the top of the shoulder you've got probably the high flaring neck coming up here they have a nice rounded shoulder and one body going down to the base down there so this beer jug isn't exactly fine bone china and it dates to about 1250 half a century after de Courcey had left so the hunt still on for fines we can tie to the Corsi and structures that shed light on what he built hopefully John's hot-off-the-press Jeff is results for the upper courtyard might give us the breakthrough we need Jamie's radar plots so this is the curtain wall and well you can see there's hints of things coming out you know at that point I think if you want something along this edge we should investigate those colors that time with what you've been taking and the question I would want to do to try and resolve as are we actually looking not something the medieval period but maybe the remains of a casual what's a casual castle would be a defended stone enclosure getting to the 17th century wow this is totally unexpected Kahn thinks the strange curve on the geophys hasn't got anything to do with the Norman castle he's got a hunch it could be something hundreds of years earlier so would you want to put a trench in here Oh most definitely yes my little vehicle out the way yeah like a team possessed we're wasting no time putting in our third trench even John's mucking in is it Irish is it Norman pie and archaeology of bargains basement bedrock we'll find out tomorrow beginning of day to hear a done drum in Northern Ireland and a pretty gray and overcast day it is but the weather is not dampening anyone's spirits in our quest to find the original Norman castle here in her trench their time teams Tracy Smith is on the hunt for something altogether different in this area an intriguing curve on the geophys got the archaeologists hoping we were onto something Irish predating the Normans Oh Tracy that's fantastic that structure isn't it that's fantastic I mean it's going down yes no sign of any mortar nope nope dress down buckle that so it's dry stone and it seems to have a gentle curve on it why am i inventing that you should come well that your feet are actually I think that's fantastic that's quite my day dry stone wall before the first cup of tea big on maybe Francis should swap the T for something stronger because this is a stunning find the Normans didn't build dry stone rooms it's Irish and could be the remains of a castle a circular walled enclosure to be sure Tracy needs to expose more undated whatever this was may well have been flattened when John de Courcey took over this area in the 12th century but while the Irish outnumbered his attacking forces they were fighting a losing battle to find out why time teams Matt Williams has volunteered to step into 12th century Irish shoes and given a choice between a woolen suit stylish though it is and Norman chainmail I know which I'd go for math how do you feel now you're fully kitted out there's an Irish fighter well fully kitted out I feel a bit underdressed next to her I mean straightaway the thing that I noticed immediately is he's got all the metal that he's got on him music chainmail he's shield is three times the size of knife he's got sword and a dagger he's a full-on battleship and I'm just a little sailing boat in the sea basically you've got farming implements a throwing axe and a shield size of a pizza okay so here we are I'm gonna give you a quick twelfth-century lesson on well you're gonna die most of the time so I come running out here okay that's mistake because I'm gonna step in block your shield and then take your head off how about if I went down with that drop the shield and now look my point is not under your guard what if I go down like that that's it I'm gonna block there or or feeling been very nasty step back and just take the arm do a high one coming down I sweat okay and then the block smack in the face of machines yeah a kick not get out of the way and then slice the face so you're feeling slightly less confident now I'm trying to think of another way what with my shoes like that well my quicker than yours I'm gonna come over the top with the pommel and then put all my weight and hopefully get you going backwards and once you stumble and fall the point of my sword is gonna follow you down to the ground and I gonna impale you as soon as you hit the ground there are certain things you could do but definitely the weight is against you I certainly wouldn't want to be in your shoes even against spirited defense the mightiest arm in England at the military edge man against man but did his building match his fighting we're starting to doubt that what you see today was what you saw in two courses time over there there's a stretch of wall which doesn't make sense because you mean you've got this this wall here haven't you and then suddenly it gets incredibly thick for a few meters and then goes back to its original depth there what's that all about calm what's possible what you're looking at is the remains of maybe the hall associated with the courses occupation of the council I see so so this thick bit would be the wool adjacent to the outer land then the whole thing would stick out yeah and here any other clues well yes Tony there's a particularly strange bit but it's hidden around the back of the time now what you mean come in this direction so funny isn't it because we virtually ignored this part of the castle completely on day one and suddenly it becomes not only really important but highly contentious this little thing here which looks to me rather like the inset for a Norman television set what actually is it Francis that Tony is a medieval toilet it's known as a guard around okay and people would have sat up with that level and done their business outside the house this would be part of a building and there is no building here no but what we have is this so this is later than the latrine and there was a building here which was demolished is fascinating Normans on there Lou reading their Norman newspapers fantastic combs detective work has paid off he's worked out that de Courcey built a stone hall complete with latrine where the round tower now stands he also put up a halt here now disappeared and that's not all based on the architecture of the round keep and gatehouse calms convinced they're both 13th century he thinks they were put up by the rival Norman knight who turned up to spoil two courses party Hugh de Lacy was sent by King John to depose de Courcey whose control of the region amounted to treason but now sting him from the castle he controlled for 25 years was no mean feat it took delacey about five years and he finally managed to capture de Courcey in 1204 and there's a very good description of that in a later source it says that John de Courcey wore his armor all year round except for on Good Friday when he went into the church de Lacy burst in the course he grabbed the crucifix defended himself killed 13 of delicious soldiers and was finally captured no idea whether that was true or not was a great story isn't it de Courcey was toppled and de Lacy assumed control of Dundrum well into the 13th century it seems hardly any of what's here today was built by de Courcey so it's his original castle that we're looking for in our trenches and Phil's got a hint of exactly that what could be the earliest Norman structure on site some kind of defensive thank you almost look so this dark stuff the bank really done it but rakshasas trench is full of medieval rabble so while we know it wasn't on bedrock it's not over an intact building either undeterred Colm and Frances are embarking on their own search for the courses Castle first place them under the keep which replaced his earlier hall is a rock carved cistern 23 feet deep dug into the natural water table oh wow that is amazing good as certain is I mean I know Norman engineering at its finest does not I would imagine it's the reason way that keep us constructed at the spot they knew there was a source of water here and therefore they exploited that because that's one of the things that it really want for the castle would be a sort of watering is there's a siege yeah he'll be the must be thousands again absolutely this cistern held enough water to service the entire castle which probably once had things like a chapel and stables now they finish surveying the upper courtyard fingers crossed some of these might show up on the GF is incredibly spectacular yeah I mean we've got a whole complex of features let's just narrow it down okay oh I think the things of real interest are these responses here they look like walls they look like a large building now before you get too excited it's just possible that that's showing the natural bedding in the geology yeah but if it's not the natural bedding then we could have a big structure there there are two possible corners there which one would you favor if we were going to put a trench on it so you saying it's a building already on you corners corner to the bedrock yeah okay let's go for that what's interesting is when you look over here at the keep you can see this little opening honest thought that that made to be a means of bringing water from the cistern and sayd to keep bring an ode to here and if you had your stables here what their means of bringing the water to the horses sure so we've gone from possible bedrock to this being reconstructed as stables with water supply coming in fantastic prove it in the ground we will you wait [Music] the Gorn will it's been thrown to time teams Cassie Nuland to get the fourth trench up and running what we're still lacking in our trenches are any actual buildings and any type dates so no pressure it's lunchtime day two and Francis frankly the archaeology is even slower than the lunch queue trenches well the point of new trenches it's gorgeous can you guarantee to me that this afternoon we'll find out more about the story of the castle yes Tony absolutely we'll find out a huge amount about it going oh there is a burning question still there what's that chips on lash afternoon day two and just before lunch we put in this trench here because we thought that there might be an ancient castle building here Kassie it does seem we've got a load of rubble doesn't it ah well I think it's probably collapse which is better than rubble before lunch we were positing that this could be a stables does that we'll read well for you well we've had a lot of stabili evidence out we do have a really nice thing is this justify the singing oh yeah absolutely it's what we call a roof finial it speaks a decorative roof furniture yeah there's nothing you'd find on the edge of the ridge over at the of the eave on a really nice posh building you just said really posh building here does that undermine this notion that it was a stable I mean these things sort of turn upon the roofs of priories and big grand homes isn't that sort of thing and castles I suppose as well this one was made in Bristol how do you know it was made in Bristol I can't say a Bristol City FC market it's the fabric dark grey with buff surfaces lead glaze classic ham green just outside Bristol what's a date well late 12th to mid 13th something like that so right on the money for the construction Lansing great great well it looks as though we may well be on the money in this strange then well done the date of this rare roof finial means it's the first find we can tie to the courses original castle over in his trench feels confident he's found something else belonging to the Corsi the first norman defense on this hill and he's etching to share the news Shh give me a chance film ah crikey you've been ignoring me all day no I haven't feel I've been busy and so of you what have you fine well we got the bank I thought you'd want to come and see the bank is running up road up here running road over and it's running back down there I think that's quite a substantial banks I think that's a fantastic bang Phil I mean one of the things that strikes me about it it actually looks far better constructed you know with big lumps of masonry down there is that what you think well I mean there's the bank itself which is all this really big stony these big rubbish stuff which comes up and over there and actually is going down and look at the size of these big stones they're really solid and I mean you don't know I mean if it was a defensive bank it might've had a palisade on it and of course you don't know how much of it it might have been chopped off when they actually put the stone the stone water and I mean do you have a date now for this curtain wall well the only thing we can date at the moment is the surface where my hand is here no this is the courtyard surface and that has got 13th 14th century pottery on it so this wall must be 13th or 14th century in date or more likely a lot earlier because this courtyard surface laps up against it I mean that's that's not bad for a beginner I won't call you next time Phil's impressive discovery that the wall is at least 13th century means it was almost certainly built by de Courcey but before he put up this imposing stone defense it seems his stopgap was a substantial earth and bold a bank it was a period we call the campaign phase a time when he was resting control of the area and fighting the indigenous Irish step up mat round two target practice this is actually how he would have been against each other than yes myself with this bow yes the big difference here is you'd have been shooting arrows at him and they'd have been bouncing off him whereas he'd have been shooting his arrows at you and they would have gone through you into the garden with the weight of the bow that he's using would certainly Drive the shafts efficiently through you to be coming right out your bike yeah as skilled hunters the Irish arrows were perfect for killing animals this is believe how difficult this one is to pull that but useless against chainmail the Normans were better equipped their needle bodkin arrows were long thin and ripped through anything we're going to measure precisely how far each bow could fire the Irish bow was made from you and measured three foot six the Norman had bows which were between five and six feet long eighty-seven point three meters the superior range of Norman bows successfully held the Irish at bay backed up by imposing defenses Stewart and time team surveyor Emma would have been using laser images called lidar to peer beneath the vegetation at the scale of John de courses castle and fortifications this is the lidar that's actually showing all the tree coverage and everything which we can't really see much underneath that we can strip that off and have the model like here it's not incredible you can see these features around here these are those pictures okay so what are you proposing to do now I think I mean what we're going to need to do is take some measurements to show just precisely what's going on in terms of where ditch bottoms might be ditch tourists and so on but no I think that's fantastic great snow a massive series of ditches encircle the castles outer walls Stewart now needs to measure them and work out how they were built and no hard feelings Stewart the world your offer tling in the bushes we're all off to enjoy some Irish hospitality doesn't take much persuasion to get them to a pub you know the way to the pub that we do rely on the Lord for that [Music] what kind of day is it been for you cult that's been great day the weather said good and we opened over open up not trench over the stone feature that's the mysterious thing that could be the earliest building on the south slope the arc abou the origin point for the wolf site and you've got the posh house well I got pots roof we're hoping for posh house but there's just that last little bits machine away in the corner you've had a good time here I mean we've shifted a lot I'm up today but it's been worth it it's been worth it but I'm staying here now and I'm actually in a bit of a shock because apparently these when in anglo-norman was about the English were noted as being heavy drinkers yes and the Irish were noted for their sobriety and your point yeah well I also learned was there was this lovely phrase and it said the grain mix with water cheers the mind and makes for joyful company so we've got the grain and a water let's have some joyful company let's have tomorrow we have some joyful archaeology it's our final day at Dundrum Castle in Northern Ireland and the entire team are blowing away last night's cobwebs with some heavy duty not only are we unearthing the story of Irish occupation on this hill over a thousand years ago we're also piecing together what Norman knight John de Courcey put up when he arrived in the 12th century we were hoping to find John to corset Castle in this trench here which Cassie open yesterday afternoon but frankly that just looks like a little trouble to me no Castle here so we haven't got the original norman castle yet but maybe we're close to it but what's getting us particularly excited is the other end of the trench we extended it hoping for more castle but instead we've unearthed more Cashel Cashel always confuses me because it sounds so much cárcel but it's not that at all no it's not on the earlier thing at some the period probably the seventh century to the 10th century it's a stone walled enclosure and what we think might be the outside of the castle is here where Raksha is excavating how does this look on the geophys Francis well it looks rather spectacular to me you've got this huge so spread of nothing this is the Holy Grail isn't it yes if we can establish that this is a castle everyone's gonna remember this archaeology yeah I would be extremely happy Tony I would be so that's why I'm extending this trench yeah so I'm gonna bridge off here yeah and then come back like that for about three meters so I'd be in the middle of the castle now if it is a casual yes I mean over here and over here I got to extend Tracy's trench here yeah to come towards to meet it eventually we may decide to join the two up I'd a never be necessary because the other side of the castle would be this gorgeous bit of stone weren't here that Tracy's been excavated you've got it coming now we've exposed it fully it is drop-dead gorgeous dry stone walling it is stunning I've done a bit of dry stone walling in my life and I couldn't begin to do that that's classy stuff so this really is starting to get exciting isn't it it's looking smashing so with one day to go and with the blessing of our Irish partners we're pushing our trench allowance to its limit by making these trenches even bigger it's the only way to prove whether the wall continues in a circle and is indeed a castle because elsewhere some castles have turned out to be the strongholds of Irish kings so combs taking me into the countryside to check out an intact example on so many time teams we say we're gonna see how far back in time we can go to the earliest evidence on this side and it's very hard to do that mostly it's disappeared ten miles from done drum is drum Mina Cashel over a thousand years old so this is it along here yeah there's your bank storm dry stone like all dry stone the same way you and Seaway we were all getting excited a bit dry stone how tall do you think it would have been originally well that's probably a I'd say about another meter and height at least the one thing that strikes me is how big it is says very big basically a defended farmstead because you've got the threat of people steal the cattle and also you have to remember that an iron this time you got wolves cool look at this here this is intriguing Cullen what's this it's a defensive feature it's Lake artificial cave yeah and what would happen if there was a raid the people he loved down here they would go under the ground and there's a this cavern for them to take protection many Irish chiefs and their families would have lived in these enclosures when the Normans arrived in the 12th century and they had two choices fight or flee unfortunately we're not giving Matt the option of fleeing as he takes on the fight of his life round three man versus horse this is the Norman saddle and this is really the key to how they managed to beat the Irish it's very very solid but a very high back and they have stirrups and you can only couch alerts which means holding it on your arm and bracing gets the back of your saddle obviously if you have a saddle and stirrups push against if you can imagine what it'd be feeling like going up against that and all the heavily-armored might of the heavy horse with his long lance longer than your little javelins and of course his very sharp and you can expect to have the psaltery I'm so glad that you're doing this and not me what exactly is it that you've got to perform well I've got to face up to the horse and rider with the spear and all the elements that he's got and once again I appear to be a severe disadvantage the main one being I've only on foot and I'm probably gonna Chuck on my things that almost players even there's gonna bounce off is he gutsy does he know what to do his courage will bear him through he who courage is that what we've got to rely on that's all I'm gonna have left right take your Spears name only a fraction of the Irish would have fought on horseback most were on foot the back foot well that's pretty conclusive the normans superior weapons and cavalry left countless Irish dead others took refuge in nearby towns and those who survived was subject to the courses control rubbing salt in their wounds he then built his castle on top of their stronghold back you've been working I have what we thought this morning was a fortified castle is now looking rather more intriguing I wonder are we looking at actually a building yes my god we're looking actually at some sort of building up here there's a hole really well possibly you could be looking at a hole as possible what you had was the a big structure which was roofed door for the entire thing I mean this has to be important it was a very very very top of the hill very important you're dealing with a high status yeah settlement up here in the whole top this is a real revelation the curve dry stone is too well built to be an enclosure it seems to be the platform for a substantial round building but little is known about Ireland before the Normans we do know the country was split into 150 kingdoms to us tribal leaders ruled their people from a fortified strongholds and was celebrated for their bravery and heroism the Dundrum there's one local legend that survives the first mention of Dundrum is in about 800 in a story dealing with the building of a big feasting hall and it refers to a feast that was organized by a character called brick roux and it was attended by all the heroes of Ulster and they spent a long time feasting telling about their exploits according to Irish mythology recruit was a lord poet and troublemaker who once lived here incredibly it looks like we might be onto his renowned feasting hall we've got some feasting debris in the shape of butchered animal bone and just on the other side of the site Phil's got something we can date he's unearthed an early ground surface where someone dropped something pretty special it's a gorgeous bone painting see it's been really really nicely shaped you can see this lovely little hole in the end there's a strong view that it could actually be early Christian in other words it that it is much much earlier than the stone keep and actually relate to the first people who use this site this beautiful clothing pin is definitely pre Norman and proof the Irish were living here as far back as the 9th or 10th century as for our Norman story Casas trench has drawn a big fat blank demolition has obliterated any clues as to what this building once was luckily Stewart has found some spectacular evidence of the Normans engineering skills outside the castle walls up here first of all we this Bank was something on top of you can see the slope down there that's very steep it is and this slope down here is the first Bank up we're standing on top of it you've got to imagine there'd be a palisade on top of here as well it wouldn't be like this then you come down into what would be the ditch behind it which is partially filled it you can see this this dip we're in now and they see we're climbing up again up here is this stilled of course it is it still because it and then this another ditch yeah and you look at this one it's actually don't fall down because it isn't actually vertical there blimey no wow that one yeah and if you come to the other side of it up to this face here up again and you see it's another rock cottage look at this here well yeah [Music] these defenses were dug deep into solid rock back-breaking work and a sign the Normans were here to stay you see where they put it away late but at the front of the castle there's no sign of any defenses and Stuart's worked out why all we've got left of that inner ditch the rock-cut ditch that we saw you can see the rock cut face in there and you can trace it all the way around now what's happened at a later stage probably in the 17th century when this big house below us is having its gardens built they're getting rid of all this big bank and ditch and everything here that's in the way to create lovely girl absolutely and that's not just a bright idea it's actually demonstrated through through data bite which has taken from the lidar critical warmth through accurate measurements across a site stewards proved that the grounds been completely removed on this side and that's not all he still got his trump card to play there's nothing there at all it's a complete void is it a chimney no I think it's the bottom of a guard rod shoe you know a toilet drain effectively thank you for making me put my hand up it but what's interesting about that is there's no evidence of building going with this if you look on the other side of the world it's blank and wonder if what we've got right at the end is a tower Stewart's discovery of a second toilet chute on the other side of the castle means there must have been a tower to contain it probably the original gate Tower we finally got all the elements of this impressive castle it started with the circuit of substantial banks and ditches around this hill on top was a huge circular Bank next the curtain wall and gate Tower and within the courtyard two holes and stables but it's the earlier Irish part of the story that's really created a buzz and attracted the attention of some of Ireland's top archaeological brass what we found is the very summit of this hill and surrounding it in a great circle like a crown were the foundations of a Great Hall and this would have been the dwelling place of the tribal chieftain this was the reason why this later castle was built this had always been an important place isn't that interesting because the very first reference to Dan drum is of a big hole where people came for feasting yeah that's a real gem of discovery on a beautiful site [Music] archeology has given us a glimpse of a time we know so little about proving 1200 years ago this hilltop was an Irish seat of power remind me again what's the Irish for Cheers slasher slasher right ladies and gentlemen I think we've only got one word to say which is [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

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Keywords: History, Full Documentary, Documentaries, Full length Documentaries, Documentary, TV Shows - Topic, Documentary Movies - Topic, 2017 documentary, BBC documentary, Channel 4 documentary, history documentary, documentary history, time team full episodes, time team season 20, time team specials full episodes, time team, tony robinson, tony robinson motivational speaker, tony robinson documentary, tony robinsons romans, tony robinson worst jobs in history

Id: eI_BieIod2o

Length: 47min 3sec (2823 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 13 2019