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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Castle - tower house

Birmingham Demesne, County Galway, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Castle - tower house, Birmingham Demesne, County Galway, with a pin at the register's coordinates
Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915), covering this location. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland. The pin is ours, placed from the register's coordinates.

The record

Townland
Birmingham Demesne
County
Galway
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Castle (in ruins)
Latest-edition OS map
Castle (Site of)
Coordinates
53.52507, -8.80266
SMR number
GA030-015----

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

4 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1753 map "Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1753 · Mappa geographica Regni Hiberniae (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1790 · Composite: Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1869 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

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This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

In gently undulating pastureland, formerly part of Birmingham Demesne. Marked on OS 6-inch maps as both a 'Castle' and a 'Court'. What survives is an overgrown rectangular platform of earth and stone (L 48m, Wth 40m) defined by a steep scarp (H c. 3-4m). On the crest of the scarp are the intermittent foundation lines of a wall; probably a bawn. The outlines of at least five conjoined rectangular buildings are identifiable along NE side. A separate rectangular building is visible in S corner, immediately outside the bawn wall. Traces of a collapsed vault are visible within it, suggesting that this may be the remains of a tower.

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Galway Vol. II - North Galway'. Compiled by Olive Alcock, Kathy de hÓra and Paul Gosling (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1999).

Date of upload: 05 August 2010

Nearby in the register

Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.

Sites and Monuments Record data: National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Record text is reproduced unchanged. National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland · CC BY 4.0
All Castle - tower house in Galway All County Galway records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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