Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Metalworking site
Brewsterfield, County Kerry, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Brewsterfield
- County
- Kerry
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- Latest-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- SMR number
- KE067-164----
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
McCracken (1957, 130) recorded the following details about 17th century ironworks in Killarney, the precise location of which within the townland of Brewsterfield has not been identified; 'Killarney Town. Brewsters Fields townland, OS 66. Owned in 1693 by Sir Francis Brewster, land purchased in time of Charles II. A local rising in 1696 by the O'Donaghoes destroyed the works and Brewster's son was nearly strangled by an O'Donaghoe 'with my cravat and his Irish thumbs.' In 1698 Brewster applied for some of Sir Valentine Brown's land, which was intermixed with his own. He stated that the wood on Brown's estate would be helpful in rebuilding his iron works. In 1756 the works were being run by a company using some imported English ore which was mixed with local ore. A proposal was made to make the River Laune navigable from Castlemain harbour to bring ore all the way by boat instead of on horseback'.
Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien
Date of upload: 23 June 2022
References
McCracken, E. 1957 Charcoal-burning ironworks in seventeenth and eighteenth century Ireland. Ulster Journal of Archaeology 20, 123-38.