Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on the N shore of Lough Gill. Annalistic references to O’Rourke’s Baile Nua – Newtown – date from 1541, and in 1581 Brain na Murtha O’Rourke destroyed the Newtown himself to prevent it falling to an enemy (McDermott 2019, 113). This reference described it as O'Rourke’s usual residence. The foundations of a tower house (ext. dims. 12.05m x 9.05m) were recovered in excavations by Claire Foley (1972; 1973; 1974). The tower house was within a subrectangular bawn (max. int. dims 36m E-W; 26m N-S at W; c. 38m N-S at E) defined by a masonry wall (T c. 1.4m) which survives almost complete (H c. 5m plus) with its original wall-walk and crenellations with gun loops. (Foley and Donnelly 2000, 58-65)

The bawn has a two-storey gatehouse (ext. dims 8.5m N-S; 7.7m E-W) at the centre of the E side with an entrance passage (Wth 2m; H 3.3m). There are circular corner-towers at the NW (ext. diam. c. 4m) and NE (ext. diam. c. 5.5m) angles, smaller corner-turrets at the SW and SE angles, and an outer moat (Wth 8m; D 2m) on the W, N and E sides, while the S wall backs on to the lake. The foundations of rectangular outbuildings were found against the E, S and W walls. In the early seventeenth century, Captain Parke built a fortified house (LE010-03702-) on the site incorporating the bawn and gatehouse. The base of the tower house is conserved as a part of the Parke’s Castle National Monument, which is usually open to visitors April to October for a modest fee; see this web-page accessed on 03/01/2020 http://www.heritageireland.ie/en/north-west/parkescastle/

This is a National Monument in state ownership: No. 390

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.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 6 December 2012
Amended: 3 January 2020

References

Foley, C. 1972 Kilmore. In T. Delaney (ed.) Excavations 1972-4, 19-20. Belfast. Association of Young Irish Archaeologists and Ulster Archaeological Society.

Foley, C. 1973 Kilmore. In T. Delaney (ed.) Excavations 1972-4, 16-17. Belfast. Association of Young Irish Archaeologists and Ulster Archaeological Society.

Foley, C. 1974 Kilmore. In T. Delaney (ed.) Excavations 1972-4, 20. Belfast. Association of Young Irish Archaeologists and Ulster Archaeological Society.

Foley, C. and Donnelly, C. 2012 Parke's Castle, Co. Leitrim: archaeology, history and architecture. Archaeological Monograph Series, No. 7. Stationery Office. Dublin.

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