Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Castle - tower house
Lissylisheen, County Clare, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Lissylisheen
- County
- Clare
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- Site of Lissylisheen Castle
- Latest-edition OS map
- Lissylisheen Castle (Site of) (1916)
- Coordinates
- 53.03637, -9.18496
- SMR number
- CL009-001023-
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1753 "Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
At the E edge of a shelf on a gently undulating karst plateau, in rough pasture, within a large multiperiod field system (CL009-001001-). Depicted on the 1842 ed. of the OS 6-inch map as a small circular area (diam. c. 15m) defined by a broken line and labelled ‘Site of Lissylisheen Castle’. On the 1897 OS 25-inch plan it is shown as a roughly triangular hachured mound. Listed as ‘Tower house and Bawn’ in the RMP (1996). In 1574 it was the property of the O’Loughlin clan but by 1585 the O’Davorens were living there; it appears to have been occupied until the end of the seventeenth century (Ua Cróinín and Breen 1996, 10-11). It was in a ruined state when Westropp (1899, 369) recorded it.
The tower house is located in the SE corner of the bawn (CL009-001037-). It is almost entirely collapsed and is defined by a grass-covered mound of rubble (19m NW–SE; 16m NE–SW; av. H 2.5–3.6m; max. H 5m on W side). Intact sections of walling at the NW corner (W wall L 3.8m; N wall L 5.9m) appear to be inner walls that supported a vault.
See attached document with details from Risteárd Ua Cróinín and Martin Breen, The Castles and Tower-houses of Co. Clare (unpublished report). Uploaded courtesy of R. Ua Cróinín and M. Breen.
Compiled by: Conn Herriott and Olive Alcock
Date of upload: 12 October 2021
References
Record of Monuments and Places as established under Section 12 of the National Monuments (Amendment) Act 1994, County Clare. Issued by National Monuments and Historic Properties Service 1996. Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands.
Ua Cróinín, R. and Breen, M. 1997 The castles and tower-houses of Co. Clare, 6 vols. Unpublished report submitted to the National Monuments Service, Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Dublin.
Ua Cróinín, R. and Breen, M. 1996 Some tower houses with bawns in the Burren. The Other Clare 20, 5-13.
Westropp, T.J. 1899 Prehistoric remains in the Burren, County Clare. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 29, 367-84.
Nearby in the register
- Bawnunder 1 mi
- Enclosureunder 1 mi
- Ringfort - cashelunder 1 mi
- Ringfort - cashelunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.