Castle - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

No surface remains of a possible tower house annotated 'Site of Bulgaden Hall' on the 1840 ed. OSi 6-inch map. Castle site stands in courtyard of house located to S. Westropp (1906-7, 192-3) recorded the following details about Bulgaden Fox; 'J. Fox, of Bulgedine, was pardoned (Fi. 3040). Peyton gives Bulgedden Buske C[astle]. "Boskagh" being the Fox family (p. 11b). 1587 Sir E. Fitton was granted the head-rent of Jas. Fox in Ballygidden; it was £6 in "half-face" (Fi. 5032). 1655 Ballyvullygiden, ruinous C[astle]. of Edm. ffox (C.S., xxxi., p. 13). Bulligiden Fox, "in it stands a C[astle]. and a rath" (D.S.A., 34). 1666-7 Granted to Capt. Rob. Morgan (Act Sett.)'. The 1654-56 Civil Survey of Limerick recorded that Edmond Ffox of Bulgaden, an Irish Papist was the owner in 1641 of 'a Ruinous Castle & 24 Cabbins upon it' (Simington 1938, 102). A tower house like castle is depicted standing beside 'a Rath' on the 17th century Down Survey map of Small County barony (Hib. Reg.). Tower house depicted on the Down Survey map of Uregare Parish (NLI, MS 718).
Bulgaden Hall described in 1826 as; 'once the superb seat of John Evans, Esq. who was brother to the first Lord Carbery: its present fine remains prove it to have ranked amongst the most magnificent mansions in Munster; but it is now almost in ruins, none of the family having resided here for many years' (Fitzgerald 1826, 390). In 1850 the ruins of Bulgaden Hall were described as; 'nought remains but the foundation walls and a solitary stone, bearing the family arms, which no doubt once occupied a prominent place in this splendid pile, though now lying among the rank grass and thistles of its deserted court' (Burke 1850, 122).

See attached Down Survey map of Small County Barony and Uregare Parish map.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 14 May 2021

References

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.

Fitzgerald, P. 1826-7 The history, topography, and antiquities of the county and city of Limerick. 2 vols. Dublin.

Burke, J. B. 1850 The castles and mansions of Great Britain and Ireland. The St. James's magazine and heraldic and historical register. E. Churton. London

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.

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.