Castle - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

A castle is depicted on an early 17th-century map of Moydow barony (BL, Cotton MS Augustus I.ii.28) in the townland of ‘Dowclone’, which roughly corresponds to Mosstown demesne. In 1619 King James I granted William Mc Brian Murtagh ‘the castle and town or cartron of Donclone’ (Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I, 450). The castle is listed again, in 1636, in the inquisition into the property of William following his death. He also possessed another ‘ruinous castle’ (LF018-006001-) in Ballyknock (Anon. 1826, Inq. 17 Car 1). Bence-Jones (1990, 211) refers to a ‘Tower-like building’ at the back of Mosstown House (LF022-052001-), which suggests the possibility that the castle was incorporated into the later house. However, the house was destroyed in 1962 and no visible surface traces of it or the castle survive. (Lewis 1837, vol. 2, 65)

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 5 November 2012

References

Lewis, S. 1837 A topographical dictionary of Ireland, 2 vols. London. Lewis and Co.

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)

Anon. 1826 Inquisitionum in officio rotulorum cancellariae Hiberniae asservatarum, repertorium, vol. I. Dublin. George and John Grierson and Martin Keene, Printers.

Bence-Jones, M. 1990 (2nd ed.) A guide to Irish country houses. London. Constable and Co. Ltd.