Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

Westropp (1906-7, 93) recorded the following details about Tooreen Castle; '1540 Tuairín held by Sliocht Ríockard (Rental). 1586 By Geffry beg, mac Tho. Bourke (Peyton, 256). 1622 The ruinous C[astle]. of Tuorin granted to Sir W. Parsons as part of late estate of Jas. Riordan (Pat. R.). 1655 Held by N. Haly (O.S., xxix., p. 14 (D.S.A.I., 6). 1666 Confirmed to Clayton (Act. Sett.). Fabric. - The north wall 25 feet [7.6m] high, 21 feet [6.4m] wide, and four feet [1.2m] thick (O.S.L., 8, p. 154)'.
The castle was described in 1840 as 'This ruin is about 20 feet [6m] high and part of the walls demolished to the ground. It is set in a low plain' (OSNB Carrigparson Parish, 347). The castle was described in the Ordnance Survey Letters of 1840 as following; 'Of the Old Castle of Tooreen in the Townland of the same name only the north wall and eight feet [2.4m] of the east and west walls joined to this north wall remain to the height of about twenty five feet [7.6m]. It measures twenty one feet two inches [6.5m] from east to west but as no vestige of the south wall remains its dimensions from north to south cannot be ascertained. This castle is situated on very level ground. The walls are four feet [1.2m] in thickness' (OSL, 154). Tower-house like castle depicted on the 17th century Down Survey map of South Liberties Barony (Hib. Reg.) and the parish map of Carrigparson (NLI, MS. 718). The terrier of the Down Survey map of Carrigparson parish recorded that in this townland on lands owned by Nicholas Haly [Healy] of Tooreen there was 'a Castle Orchard & Mill Seate' (NLI, MS. 718). The 1654-56 Civil Survey of Limerick recorded that Nicholas Haly of Tooreen was the owner of 'a Castle, an Orchard, and a Mill seate' (Simington 1938, 469).
Only the W half of Tooreen Castle is depicted as upstanding on the 2005 OSi 5k map which matches the 1840 description of the castle remains. Tree-covered castle remains are all that is visible on Digital Globe orthophotos taken 2011-13.

See attached Google Earth orthoimages taken 19/11/2019 and 28/06/2018

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 3 July 2020

References

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.

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1929 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Limerick collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1841. Bray

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

OSL - Ordnance Survey Letters. Letters written by members of the Ordnance Survey's 'Topographical Department' (T. O'Conor, A. O'Curry, E. Curry, J. O'Donovan and P. O'Keeffe) sent to headquarters from the field (1834-41). MSS in Royal Irish Academy.

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.

NLI, MS 718 - National Library of Ireland, Parish maps with terriers, showing forfeited lands in County Limerick, commonly known as the "Down Survey", executed under the direction of Sir William Petty, 1657, and copied by Daniel O'Brien, 1786.

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.