Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

The E end of Templeogue House incorporates a late tower house with a vaulted basement. This took place in the 18th century when Sir Compton Domville (d. 1721) took over the property from the Talbot Family and built a red brick mansion on the site (Handcock 1877, 105; Ball 1905, 3, 23-8). The exterior is pebble-dashed making it difficult to identify early architectural features. However a tower survives in the NE angle rising to three storeys. The N wall is inset for a distance (L 15m) W of this tower indicating the probable extent of the main chamber of the tower house. Interior is not accessible at the time of inspection (Healy 1975, 1-19). Archaeological testing in the undercroft of the building in 1996 revealed a primary layer of cobbling and drainage channels associated with imported stoneware and gravel-tempered wares dated to the late sixteenth-early 17th century(Swan 1997, 39-40).

Compiled by Geraldine Stout

Date of upload: 25th April 2012

References

Swan, D.L. 1997 Templeogue House, Templeogue. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 1996: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 39-40. Bray. Wordwell.

Handcock, W.D. 1877 (1991 ed.) The history and antiquities of Tallaght in the county of Dublin. Dublin. Anna Livia Press.

Healy, P. 1975b Third report on monuments and sites of archaeological interest in county Dublin. An Foras Forbartha, Dublin.

Healy, P. 1975a Second report on monuments and sites of archaeological interest in county Dublin. An Foras Forbartha Teoranta.