Bastioned fort

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on top of a hill on the floor of the WNW-ESE Glencar valley and close to its junction with the NW-SE Glenade valley. Manorhamilton castle and town are c. 2.5km to the ESE. Lurganboy had been established as a manor, probably at the time of the Plantation in the 1620s when it was owned by Thomas Abercrom (Mac an Ghalloglaigh 1966, 72 fn), but it belonged to James Wynne in the 1680s. A survey of c. 1683 describes ‘a good manor house, we a Bawn wherein the said James dwell’ (Logan 1971, 330). This might refer to this fort, although the fort seems to have played no part in the assaults on Manorhamilton during 1642-3, unless it was constructed by the Irish rebels (Mac an Gallóglaig 1966, 72-83).
This is a grass-covered square area (int. dims 61.5m NE-SW; 61.5m NW-SE) with some mature deciduous trees defined by an earthen bank (ext. H 0.6m) with three surviving diamond-shaped corner bastions (dims 13m x 9.5m) defined by earthen banks (int. H 0.55m; max. ext. H 3m) built on a battered masonry plinth at the E, S and W angels. The N bastion has been levelled. There is a subrectangular area (dims 15m x 12m) defined by earth and stone banks in the interior. A small modern church and graveyard enclosed within a mortared stone wall is built in the area of the N bastion. Archaeological testing (99E0313) in the vicinity failed to reveal any associated features (Quinn 2002).

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

Revised by: Michael Moore, Paul Walsh

Date of revised upload: 25 January 2016

References

Mac an Ghalloglaigh, an t-Athair D. 1966 Sir Frederick Hamilton. Journal of Cumann Seanchas Breifne (Breifne Historical Society) 3 (9), 55-99.

Logan, J. 1971 Tadg O'Roddy and two surveys of Co. Leitrim. Journal of Cumann Seanchas Breifne (Breifne Historical Society) 4 (14), 318-34.

Quinn, B. 2002 Barrack Park, Lurganboy. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2000: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 188, no. 568. Bray. Wordwell.