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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Castle - tower house

Duncarbry, County Leitrim, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Castle - tower house, Duncarbry, County Leitrim, 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
Duncarbry
County
Leitrim
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Duncarbry Castle
Latest-edition OS map
Duncarbry Castle (in Ruins)
Coordinates
54.46651, -8.32674
SMR number
LE001-032----

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 1881 map "Ireland to Illustrate the Military Condition of the Country." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1881 · Ireland to Illustrate the Military Condition of the Country. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1904 · Sheet 4. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1922 · Ireland - northern section. (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

On top of a prominent rise in an undulating landscape and in a position to guard the ESE-WNW Drowse River, c. 1-1.5km to the E, and the gap (L c. 5.5km) between Lough Melvin and Donegal Bay. This is a castle of the McClancys, probably a tower house and bawn, where Cahir Mac Flannchadha, heir to William McClancy and the chieftainship of Dartry, died in 1538 (AFM, vol. 5, 1449). A gable with an arched doorway survived into the 19th century (Lewis 1837, 2, 537). It is now a rectangular grass-covered platform (dims 28m E-W; 17m N-S) defined by a collapsed wall (Wth 2m; H 0.45m generally to 2.25m at S) around the perimeter. The remains of a rectangular structure form a mound (dims 5.9m N-S; 9.5m E-W; H 1.95m), probably the tower house, at the NE angle. No wall-facing or architectural features are visible. (McDermott 2019, 106)

The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Leitrim' compiled by Michael J. Moore (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2003). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload: 23 September 2008

References

AFM - Annals of the kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters from the earliest period to the year 1616, ed. and trans. John O'Donovan (7 vols., Dublin, 1851; reprint New York, 1966)

Lewis, S. 1837 A topographical dictionary of Ireland, 2 vols. London. Lewis and Co.

McDermott, J. J. 2019 Late medieval strongholds of the Gaelic Irish in County Leitrim. in In Kelly, L. and Scott, B. Leitrim: History and Society, 103-27. Dublin, Geography Publications

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 Leitrim All County Leitrim records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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