Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Castle - unclassified
Moylish, County Limerick, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Moylish
- County
- Limerick
- Country
- Ireland
- SMR number
- LI005-050001-
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
The precise location of Moylish Castle has not been identified. A tower house-like structure surrounded by a cluster of dwellings (LI005-050002-) is depicted in 'Mollish' on the 17th century Down Survey map of the Barony of North Liberties (Hib. Reg.; Westropp 1906-7, 82). The RMP map for Co. Limerick identified Moylish House [ITM 556038/658717] as the possible site of the castle. No surface remains visible of any tower house at this location and no supporting cartographic evidence to suggest that this was the precise location of Moylish Castle. Could be a duplicate castle entry with Ballynantymore Castle (LI005-013----). Archaeological testing carried out at Moylish by Ken Wiggins under licence No. 01E0101 was summarised as following; 'Extensive stripping and grading work relating to the construction of three playing pitches on a fourteen-acre field at the rear of the Limerick Institute of Technology at Moylish was monitored over several weeks from November to December 2001. The work did not uncover any archaeological features or contexts. No artefacts of archaeological interest were noted in the topsoil. Two spreads of blackish clay on the surface of the boulder clay were uncovered at a point towards the northern end of the site, associated with steel nails and other metal pieces, possibly derived from construction activity around 30 years ago on the nearby housing estate of Cliona Park' (www.excavations.ie).
See attached 1657 Down Survey barony map of North Liberties (Hib. Reg.) showing Moylish Castle
Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien
Date of upload: 09 January 2020
References
Hibernia Regnum: A set of 214 barony maps of Ireland dating to the period AD 1655-59. The original parish maps have been lost but the Hibernia Regnum maps are preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris (Goblet 1932, v-x). Photographic facsimiles of these maps were published by the Ordnance Survey, Southampton in 1908.
Westropp, T.J. 1906-7 The ancient castles of the county of Limerick. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 26, 54-264.