Castle - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

Modern house located on site of Cloghatacka (Cloch an tSeaca) Castle which was depicted as a tower house type building standing on an island in the middle of the River Maigue on the 1657 Down Survey map of Kenry Barony (Hib. Reg.). In 1840 the Ordnance Survey recorded that in this townland there was a 'drawbridge over the river, with a good house for the keeper. Boats pay 3 shillings for passing through' (OSNB Kilkeedy Parish 994). The island castle depicted on the 1657 Down Survey map of Kenry Barony may have controlled the ferry crossing over the River Maigue. The 1654-56 Civil Survey of Limerick recorded that Patricke Kearny of Kilmallock an Irish Papist was the proprietor of Cloghatacka on there stood 'a stump of a Castle' (Simington 1938, 383).
Westropp (1906-07, 149) recorded the following details about Cloghatacka Castle; 'Site marked near the Ferrybridge on the Maigue. 1583 Cloughytackie C[astle]. in Corcamore, Conor Moyle O'Brien held Cloughitackye (Des. R., 8, 40b). 1588 Granted to Ric. and Alex. Phitton (Fi. 5175). 1611 Sir E. Fitten granted the C[astle]. to T. Butler (Inq. Chan., 6b). 1657 The lands and stump of a C[astle]. held by Marg. Bryne, alias Stephenson, of Carrigoguinnell (C.S., xxxii., p. 18). 1669 Confirmed to W. Barker (D.S.B., 16 ; and Act Sett.)'.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 20 November 2020

References

OSNB - Ordnance Survey Name Books. Pro-forma books arranged by Civil Parish for recording townland and other name-forms and compiled in the course of the OS 6-inch survey 1824-1841. The name books also include minor names and incidental references to antiquities. National Archives of Ireland.

Westropp, T.J. 1906-7 The ancient castles of the county of Limerick. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 26, 54-264.

Simington, R.C. (ed.) 1938 The civil survey, AD 1654-1656. Vol. IV: county of Limerick, with a section of Clanmaurice barony Co. Kerry. Dublin. Irish Manuscripts Commission.

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.