Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

On a low rise in otherwise level pasture, immediately to the SW of a 19th-century farmhouse. A land grant to John Farrell in 1620, under the commission for the Plantation of Longford, included ‘The lordship, castle, town and lands of Ardenragh’ (Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I, 466). The castle is depicted on an early 17th-century map of Shrule barony (BL, Cotton MS Augustus I.ii.26) and is shown as a large castellated structure, within a cluster of smaller buildings, on the Down Survey (1655-6) map of the barony (NLI, MS 719). The 1641 depositions record that ‘Bryan fferrall of Ardanragh’ was standing ‘on the battlements of the Castle of Ardanragh about ffebruary last was a yeare watching the Cattle belonging to himselfe and his Nephew for feare of the Toryes’ (TCD, MS 817, fol. 242r). A report in 1977 (SMR file) noted that no was no visible surface trace of the castle. Part of it may have been incorporated into the farmhouse but there was no indication of this to be seen on ground or in the appearance of the house.
In February 2021, photographs posted on Facebook by the owner of the house at Ardanragh, Co. Longford, included an old postcard of the castle dated 1881 and photographs of punch-dressed cut stone lying around the place. The post on facebook stated that 'Some of the decorative stones from the historic Ardandragh Castle, demolished in 1906 when some of the stepping stones around the rooftop became loose. This house built in 1814 as an addition to the castle (front view ) is standing and is known as “Castle Farm“ on the old OS maps. The photograph of the castle shows that it was the remains of a tower house standing on the SW end of Ardanragh House.

See attached photographs of cut stone from levelled castle and old B/W photograph of the castle provided courtesy of Kieran Campbell

Compiled and revised by: Caimin O'Brien based on details provided by Kieran Campbell

Date of revised upload: 3 June 2022

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)

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.

Trinity College Dublin, The 1641 depositions. Dublin.