Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

In low-lying pasture overlooking a stream from SSE–S–NW. In 1621 Connell McMurogh O’Feroll received a land grant including the ‘castle and lands of Bealalcare and a water-mill’ (LF018-102----) (Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I, 533). The castle is depicted on an early 17th-century map of Moydow barony (BL, Cotton MS Augustus I.ii.28). It is a rectangular tower house (ext. dims. c. 9.5m NW–SE; 7.4m NE–SW; wall T 1.85m) constructed of roughly coursed limestone rubble. As a result of collapse, only sections of the NW and NE walls survive to a height of three storeys. Few architectural features are evident but the lower section of the NW jamb of a doorway is visible close to the S end of the NW wall. Immediately inside it, to the N, there is a large rectangular alcove. At first floor-level, in the NE wall, there is a simple rectangular ope.

Compiled by: Patrick F. O'Donovan

Date of upload: 1 June 2012

References

Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I - Irish patent rolls of James I: facsimile of the Irish record commissioners' calendar prepared prior to 1830, with foreword by M.C. Griffith (Irish Manuscripts Commission, Dublin, 1966)

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)