Castle - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

On low-lying ground adjacent to the E shore of Lough Forbes. Depicted as a castellated tower on an early 17th-century map of Longford barony (BL, Cotton MS Augustus I.ii.24) and on the Down Survey (1655–6) map of Clongish parish (NLI, MS 719) as a low two-storey central block with gable-fronted towers at either end. A doorway at ground-floor level is centrally placed and there are two windows above it at first-floor level. One of the gable-fronted towers has windows on the ground and first-floor levels and is surmounted by a tall chimney stack which rises high above the roofline. Described in 1978 (SMR file) as a low irregular mound of stone and earth (c. 52m N–S; c. 24m E–W) that was delimited on the E by a low scarp; some stone, possibly wall-footing, was visible in its make-up from E–S. A disturbed subrectilinear area noted in the interior was open to the N and S but bounded on E and W by a broad irregular bank of stone and earth. It was covered with depressions and hummocks and although a fair amount of stone was visible on the surface it was not possible to trace any structures. Some large stones lying to the N appeared to have been dumped there. This may have been a medieval castle that was incorporated into a late 16th/early 17th-century house or it may date entirely from the later period.

Compiled by: Patrick F. O'Donovan, Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 3 October 2012

References

SMR file - Sites and monuments record files in the National Monuments Service, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

British Library, Cotton Manuscripts, Augustus I. Charts of the baronies of Granard, Rathcline, Longford, Ardagh, Shrule and Moydow, County Longford. London. (microfilm, NLI p. 1364)

NLI, MS 719 - National Library of Ireland, The parish maps of the Down Survey of Co. Longford attested by W. Petty under date 1657. Copied by Daniel O'Brien. A set of 22 maps with accompanying terriers, 1786-7. Dublin.