Castle - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

The Down Survey (1655-6) parish of ‘Freshford and parte of Coolerahin’ depicts, 'a Castle and Cabbins [KK013-096004-]' and accompanying terrier (Hibernia Regnum, courtesy of Trinity College Dublin) notes that there is 'at Balliroe=Shortall a Castle [KK013-096001-] & a Church [KK013-096002-] and Cabbin with a Mill [KK013-096003-]', with the proprietor in 1640 listed as Thomas Shortall Irish Papist. The buildings are indicated within a triangular area at the very S point of Ballyroe townland and this corresponds well to the triangular southern tip of the townland that survives to this day. At this location there is a rectangular platform (dims. 25m N-S; 21m E-W; H 1m) with a berm (Wth 7m) along the E and S sides and a waterlogged fosse (Wth 3m; D 0.5m) along the W and N sides, the N fosse being fed by a diverted stream. A road runs N-S immediately E of the enclosure and a stream, indicated as a ford on the 1st (1839) ed. OS 6-inch map where it meets the road, runs E-W along the S side. It is likely that the buildings depicted on the Down Survey map are located in this field, with one at least, possibly the castle or mill, being located on this platform. A lime kiln is depicted on the 1900 revision and 25-inch OS map roughly centrally placed in the field and there is extensive outcrop and small quarry holes in the field which no doubt relate to that.

See attached images:
KK013-096001-_01 Extract from the Down Survey (1655-6) parish map of 'Freshford and parte of Coolerahin’ (Hib. Reg., courtesy of Trinity College Dublin).
KK013-096001-_02 View of platform from NE (from road), Google Earth street view, viewed 31 March 2020.

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 31 March 2020

References

Hibernia Regnum: A set of 214 barony maps of Ireland dating to the period AD 1655-59. The original parish maps have been lost but the Hibernia Regnum maps are preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris (Goblet 1932, v-x). Photographic facsimiles of these maps were published by the Ordnance Survey, Southampton in 1908.