Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Castle - unclassified
Tennalick, County Longford, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Tennalick
- County
- Longford
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- Latest-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- SMR number
- LF023-123002-
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
In 1620 James McConell Farrall received a land grant, from the commission for the Plantation of Longford, which included the ‘castle, town and lands of Tenelick, with one water-mill’ (LF023-123003-) (Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I, 481). A building, annotated ‘castle’, is depicted on the Down Survey (1655-6) map of Abbeyshrule barony (NLI, MS 719); the mill is shown to its W. In 1682 Nicholas Dowdall noted that ‘on the North side of this river [Inny] is Tineleeke … where was formerly an old castle’ (Gillespie and Moran 1991, 209). Lewis (1837, vol. 2, 309) refers to it as is ‘the ruin of a strong castle’. Its precise location has not been identified. ‘Tennalick House’ (LF023-123001-) may have been built on or close to its site. However, according to local tradition, the castle was converted into the corn mill, which is c. 160m to the SW of the house, by the McCanns (Egan 2005, vol. 2, 59). A black and white photograph from the early 1900s indicates that this was a large mill (ibid.). Only a small section now survives and while it appears to date mainly to the 18th century, some earlier cut-stone fragments (LF023-123004-) are incorporated in its fabric. Alternating long and short quoins stones with punch dressing of late 16th/17th-century appearance are visible on the SE angle. These may be from either the castle or the water mill.
Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien
Date of upload: 16 October 2012
References
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.
Egan, P. (ed.) 2005 Times past in pictures: a millennium celebration of Co. Longford in photographs, vol. II. Longford. County Longford Historical Society.
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)
Lewis, S. 1837 A topographical dictionary of Ireland, 2 vols. London. Lewis and Co.