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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

House - fortified house

Ballyadams, County Laois, Ireland

The record

Townland
Ballyadams
County
Laois
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Ballyadams Castle (in ruins)
Latest-edition OS map
Ballyadams Castle (in Ruins)
Coordinates
52.96485, -7.06402
SMR number
LA019-028002-

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David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Shown on 5 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1790 "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

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The National Monuments Service's description

Marked on the Down Survey and on the 1563 map of Laois and Offaly. In gently undulating countryside in arable land. Constructed in the reign of Henry VII by Adam O'More. It was taken by the Geraldines in the rebellion of Silken Thomas. In 1546 the Lord Justice with the Earl of Desmond came with their armies to Laois. Ballyadams was given to John Bowen (O'Byrne, D 1856, 74; Comerford 1886, 125-6). Large rectangular seventeenth-century three-storey house (ext. dims. 19.5m N-S; 11.42m E-W), built of roughly coursed limestone, attached to E side of tower house (LA019-028001-). Parts of the house are possibly contemporary with the tower house, while others are definitely of a later period. Features include splayed opes, rectangular windows in N wall and possible fireplaces in N and S walls. The only access to the various floor of the house appears to have been from the NW tower of the tower house. Possible evidence of bawn wall (LA019-028003-) at SE.

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Laois' (Dublin Stationery Office, 1995) compiled by P. David Sweetman, Olive Alcock and Bernie Moran. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload: 17 December 2007

Comerford, Rev. M. 1883-6 Collections relating to the dioceses of Kildare and Leighlin, 3 vols. James Duffy and Sons. Dublin.

O'Byrne, D. 1856 The history of the Queen's county. John O'Daly. Dublin.

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
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