Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

Ballyvenoge (Baile Bheanóg) Castle (Westropp 1906-7, 171) in the townland of Maidstown (Baile Bheanóg) described in 1840 as follows; ‘Maidstown Castle situated in the townland of the same name, enters into the building of Mr. Coll’s dwelling house. This castle, which is square, measures thirty five feet one inch [10.7m] by thirty two feet [9.7m] outside, the walls, which are embattled being about fifty feet [15m] high and three and a half feet [1m] in thickness. The main body of the building contained three stories; the portion which contains the staircase consists of five stories. It does not seem to be very old’ (OSL Dromin Parish, O’Flanagan 1929, 28-9). The 1654-56 Civil Survey of Limerick recorded that in 1641 John Fox of Ballyvenoge was the owner of 'a good castle, a Bawne, an orchard, & indifferent houses' (Simington 1938, 124).
Castle described by Salter (2004, 91) as; 'Only the southern half now remains of a tower which probably measures about 10m by 9m. South of it lies a thinly walled four storey extension of c 1600-40, now propped up by a sloping SW corner buttress. It has a blocked entrance and several hood-moulded windows, also mostly blocked up. Very little now remains of a further extension to the east towards where a modern house now stands. It contained a wide new staircase. Maidstown was held in 1660 by Captain Ormsby and later passed to the Gubbins family'.

See attached Down Survey map of Coshma Barony showing Ballyvenoge Castle (Hib. Reg.). and Down Survey map of Dromin parish with building annotated 'a Castle' (NLI, MS. 718)

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 29 April 2021

See attached ASI aerial photographs ASIAP – 346/21 on 05/01/2003.

References

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.

ASIAP - Archaeological Survey of Ireland Aerial Photographs (c. 1996 - c. 2010).

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

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

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.

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.