Castle - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

On the highest point of the ridge affording panoramic views over the surrounding countryside; within the NE quadrant of a possible moated site (LF023-076001-). In 1401 the annals record that the ‘castle of Barrcha was being built by Cathal son of Tomás Ó Fearghail, and the castle of Baile Í Mhathan [see LF027-003004-] was begun by Muiris son of Conchobhar ’[Ó Fearghail] (Ó hInnse 1947, 164). The latter family demolished Cathal’s castle two years later in 1403 but he rebuilt it in 1405 (ibid., 171, 175). In 1424 the castle was involved in a feud between two branches of the descendants of Murchad O Fergail when a ‘Great war among the posterity of Murchad O Fergail’ broke out (Ann. Conn., 469). In the same year it was recorded that ‘Barry Castle was demolished by the Justiciar’ (ibid.). In 1518 the ninth earl of Kildare received rent from ‘Kedagh mc Lyshe mic Kyady mic Thomas’ Ó Fearghail, the owner of Barry castle, the sum of £20 13s. 4d. (Mac Niocaill 1992, 274; Farrell 2010, 123). In 1621 Gerald McRory Farrall received a land grant including the ‘castle and lands of Barry and Bunuvalla alias Cartrondrome and a watermill [LF023-126----] … and a fishing wear [LF023-136----] on the river Enny’ (Cal. pat. rolls 19 Jas. 1, 533). On the Down Survey (1655–6) map of Abbeyshrule parish (NLI, MS 719) it is depicted as the ‘Old Castle’ and the mill is located to its S.
All that survives of the castle is a grassed-over mound (c. 19m N–S; c. 15m E–W; H 2m) of collapsed rubble, which obscures its original plan. However, some traces of the external stone facing of the N wall survive, where two courses of the wall are still visible. No other architectural features are apparent. Several gaps in the rubble are the result of quarrying.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 2 October 2012

References

Ann. Conn. - Annála Connacht, The Annals of Connacht, 1224-1544, ed. A. Martin Freeman (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1944)

Ó hInnse, S. (ed.) 1947 'Mac Carthaig's Book', Miscellaneous Irish Annals (AD 1114-1437). The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.

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.

Farrell, N. 2010 The Uí Fhearghail and the lordship of Anghaile, c. 1400-1540. In M. Morris, and F. O'Ferrall (eds.), Longford: history and society, 101-33. Dublin. Geography Publications.

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)

Mac Niocaill, G. (ed.) 1992 Crown surveys of lands, 1540-41: with the Kildare rental begun in 1518. Dublin. Irish Manuscripts Commission.