The Powder Tower - Dublin Castle, Dublin, Ireland
N 53° 20.609 W 006° 16.007
29U E 681948 N 5913963
Beneath the Treasury Building on the north west side of the Lower Yard, in Dublin Castle, are the remains of buildings past. A plaque on a wall, near the west corner of Lower Yard gives the information.
Waymark Code: WMR1K9
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Date Posted: 04/28/2016
Views: 4
The brown plaque carries text in Irish and English with the English version advising:
Powder Tower
Viking and Norman Defences
Bebeath this building, features uncovered during an archaeological excavation in 1986 are now on view, including: part of a stone faced Viking defensive bank; the massive remains of the 13th century North-East corner tower of the castle (later known as the Powder Tower); a postern gate; part of the castle moat and the junction between the town wall and the castle.
The Dublin Castle website also tells us:
The butt of the five-story north-east Powder Tower is visible at the Undercroft and contains part of the Viking town defence bank. The moat narrowed here to allow the city wall join the castle over an arch. This, still visible, double archway allowed the moat to fill from the Poddle and provided access for small feeder boats to deliver provisions through the postern gate in the wall, from larger vessels moored on the Liffey. This tower was originally five stories high and the Lord Deputy occupied the top floor. Later it stored gunpowder. Archaeological excavations found plates of iron and off cuts and mounts of bronze and buckles, which indicate that it may have contained the workshop of an armourer in the 14th Century.