Time Team Day 30 - Fort of the Earls

Good morning!  Two more days and I will be done with the 2024 edition of the Thirty-One Days of the Time Team.  I keep peaking at my document with all the Time Team episodes and it is very cool to see the boxes being marked off as I finish an episode of the Time Team.  I just have three more episodes to do to finish up series four and series five.  Today I am going to do an episode from series fifteen.  The episode is called Fort of the Earls and it has a run time of 48:44.

The Time Team visits Northern Ireland.  They are examining one of the most important sites in Anglo-Irish History.  It is a hilltop castle above Dungannon, and it was the home of the powerful O’Neill dynasty.  It was a castle seized by English Forces.  The Time Team has been given three days to excavate a castle that has changed the course of Irish History, no pressure right?  The Time Team is joined by Colm Donnelly, Hiram Morgan, Paul Logue, and Jim O’Neill.

A local council was given the site and wanted to turn the castle hill into a park.  Tony catches up with Mick and they look at an image of the castle as it looked like after the English defeated the Irish.  There were some clues as to where the castle was on this hill.  Day one begins with a geophysics challenge and ripping up concrete.

Tony catches up about the history of Dungannon and the O’Neill Dynasty.  He meets with Hiram Morgan and learns about the O’Neill family.  They claimed one of the oldest lineages in European History.  One O’Neill wrote to the pope complaining about English Rule.  They would have been a prominent Irish family and did not like English rule.  It would have been a tempting target for the English.  O’Neill hated the English so much that he destroyed his castle to stop it from being used as a garrison in 1602.  1602 would have begun English dominance in Ulster.

Trenches go in several areas, one over the wall, another in a rampart section, and the last going in over an Irish settlement.  The main trench over where some medieval walls are are proving to be a challenge.  The British Army has left behind a meter-deep concrete slab.  The Time Team has to pick a different spot to dig for the wall.  The area they pick has softer ground and Phil makes his way to working on the trench.  Will the remains of the wall be discovered in this trench?

Eventually, Phil makes two discoveries dating back to the O’Neill era.  A flagon was discovered dating back to the late 16th Century.  The flagon would have been important from Germany.  The English were concerned that the Irish could be used as a launching point for a potential invasion.  The English would try to persuade the Irish to become more English.  However, the O’Neill Family were resistant to these changes.  The English would invade and would bring an end to the traditional Irish way of life in this settlement.

There are more challenges along the way.  Dungannon would have been burned down several times throughout history and the landscape would have changed.  However, John Gater has discovered areas of burning in the ground.  So what will a trench reveal about the burning? 

Back in Phil’s trench, there are some difficulties in discovering the castle wall.  Based on where the moat is the Castle may be in a different area on the site.  Even though Phil has made evidence dating back to the Sixteenth Century, he does not think the chunk of the wall belongs to the castle.  Phil’s trench will have to be enlarged to see if the castle was where it theorized was.  So where was this castle?  What will the Time Team learn about this castle?  Tune into the rest of the episode to find out.

Phil was very snappy and sarcastic with Tony in this episode, which is funny.  The archeology was very interesting and better throughout the episode.  This would be an episode I would include on a potential Time to show to a history class list.