Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

Westropp (1906-7, 218-9) recorded the following details about Amogan More Castle; '1583 John Crone Sarsfield or Morris mac Edm. Sarsell or Sarsfield, in rebellion, held Amogon and the C[astle]. of Lackarewny Knockan (Fi. 4694; Inq. Exch., Jas. L, 6), or Omagan C[astle]. and Omaganmoore (Des. R. 22; Peyton, 72). 1588 Grant to Billingsley of estate of Edm. macMorys (Fi. 5171). 1606 Ric. Hunt, of Ballymecre, held Knockans, a parcel of Amogan (Equity Exch., Order L, May, 1606). 1611 A portion of the C[astle]. of Omoggane was reserved for Emory Lee (Inq. Chan., 6). 1613 F. Drew fixed its mears (Inq. Chan., 10b). 1655 Awangon, late estate of B. Hunt, granted to Ol[iver]. Lambert and Brook Bridges (B.D., p. 21 C.S., p. 50). 1668 Avongan or Amogan confirmed to Lambert (Act Sett.). 1719 W. Blunt, of Amogan, died (will, Limerick).
Fabric - A tower 27 feet [8.2m] by 21 feet [6.4m], walls 5 feet to 7 feet [1.5-2.1m] thick. It is 36 feet [11m] high, with a spiral stairs to north-east. Tradition says that James II. slept a night there (O.S.L., 9, p. 438)'. House-like castle depicted on the 17th century Down Survey map of Connello Barony (Hib. Reg.). The 1654-56 Civil Survey of Limerick recorded that Richard Hunte late of Amagon, was the owner of 'a Castle and a smale bawn [LI029-043001-], and wth. great tacth houses on it' (Simington 1938, 292).
Amogan More Castle described by Salter (2004, 60) as follows; 'There are two storeys under a vault in this tower measuring 8.4m by 6.6m, and two upper levels reached by a stair from the north facing entrance. Probably built by the Sarsfields, it was granted in 1588 to the Billingsleys'.
Castle classified by Donnelly (1999, 25, 37) as a Type 1D tower house where 'entrance to the building is located in one of the tower house's long walls near a corner. The entrance lobby is set within the thickness of the long wall. There is no subsidiary chamber but on one side of the lobby is the doorway leading to a wall-stair that rises up through the thick ness of the long wall to provide access to the first and/or second floor level in the building'.

See attached plan taken from Donnelly 1999.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 8 December 2020

References

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.

Salter, M. 2004 The castles of North Munster. Worcestershire. Folly Publications.

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.

Donnelly, C.J. 1999 A Typological Study of the Tower Houses of County Limerick. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 129, 19-39.