Bastioned fort

The National Monuments Service's description

Located on top of a drumlin overlooking Jamestown, which is c. 170m to the E at the nearest point. A fort with a wide view over the countryside and the town would be an essential part of the defences of Jamestown and might have been constructed at the outset in 1620, but the earliest secure reference to a garrison at Jamestown is in 1646 when it had a complement of a hundred men and their officers (Mahaffey 1901, 654). In September 1689 Col. Thomas Lloyd, on a raid from Sligo town, took Jamestown without a fight for King William as defending Jacobite troops had fled overnight. He left a colonel Russell in charge of a token force, which abandoned the town at Sarsfield’s approach the next month, but there was no fighting at Jamestown (Wauchope 1992, 76-81).
The fort is a rectangular earthen platform (dims 20m E-W; 17.5m N-S; H 0.6-1m) with slight banks at N (Wth 2.5m; int. H 0.3m; ext. H 0.7m) and S (Wth 4.3m; int. H 0.5m; ext. H 1.2m). There are rectangular bastions (dims of top 9.5-10.5m N-S; 5-7m E-W) offset in two directions at each angle. The bastions are defined by scarps (H 0.6-1.2m), and the fort is surrounded by a slight fosse indicated by lush vegetation forming a rectangular area (max. ext. dims 40m E-W; 36m N-S). The fort is cut by a N-S field bank towards the W edge, and it is grass-covered W of this feature but is generally overgrown to the E. (Bradley and Dunne 1988, 26-7)

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 revised upload: 17 October 2019

References

Wauchope, P. 1992 Patrick Sarsfield and the Williamite war. Dublin. Irish Academic Press.

Bradley, J. and Dunne, N. 1988 Urban archaeological survey - county Leitrim. Unpublished report commissioned by the Office of Public Works, Dublin.

Mahaffy, R.P. (ed.) 1901 Calendar of State Papers relating to Ireland, of the Reign of Charles I. 1633-1647 in the possession of the Public Record Office. London, HMSO