Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Country house
Ballynacourty, County Galway, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Ballynacourty
- County
- Galway
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- Indicated
- Latest-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- Coordinates
- 53.21515, -8.95026
- SMR number
- GA103-033001-
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
In low-lying pastureland. According to the OS Letters (O’Flanagan 1927, Vol. 1, 300-301), the ‘old church of Baile na Cuirte [GA103-031----] took its name from a large house said to have belonged to the Martins.’ Holt (1911-12, 241 (70)) identified this house as that shown as an L-shaped building on the 1838 edition of the OS 6-inch map, c. 170m to the NNE of the church. A number of other buildings are shown on the map to its SE and SW and the house is located directly beside a NE-SW running road. By that time, Holt (ibid.) noted that the house was ruined and the ‘excellently cut stone work’ had been considerably reduced and reused in labourers’ cottages. On inspection in March 1983, only traces of this building survived. The longer section was aligned NE-SW (int. dims. L 17.6m; Wth 5.65m) and the shorter section (int. dims. L 15.5m; Wth 6.6m) extended off its SW end and ran NW-SE. Of the longer section, traces of the NW wall and the return of the NE wall survived. The rest of the latter wall, the SE and SW walls, and the walls of the shorter section only survived as collapsed grassed-over banks. Apart from the remains of four splayed windows (H 0.57m; D 0.58m; int. Wth 0.48m; ext. Wth 0.07m) in the NW wall of the longer section of the building, no other architectural features survived. The other buildings shown on the 1838 map were also reduced to grassed-over foundations. The remains of a cross (GA103-033002-) were noted lying beside one of them. A possibly brewery (GA103-033003-) may also have been associated.
Compiled by: Olive Alcock
Date of upload: 21 November 2022
References
Holt, E.W.L. 1911-12 Notes on the Ordnance Survey Letters relating to the barony of Dunkellin: iii - Ballynacourty parish. Journal of the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society 7, 205-51.
O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1927 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Galway collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1839. Typescript in 3 vols. Bray.
Nearby in the register
- Crossunder 1 mi
- Souterrainunder 1 mi
- Souterrainunder 1 mi
- Ringfort - cashelunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.