Castle - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

Westropp (1906-7, 193) recorded the following details about a castle in the townland of Ballymacshaneboy (Baile Mhic Sheáin Bhuí); '1590 Shaneboye and Knockshandeboye (Hardiman, No. 56). In 1655 it formed part of County Limerick, Ballyshondeby C[astle]. (C.S., xxv., p. 19; D.S.A., 58). There seems some confusion between it and Ballyshanedehey. Fabric - Only an arch remained in 1840 (O.S.L., 8, pp. 317-339)'. Tower house type castle depicted in Ballymashaneboy on the 1654-56 Down Survey map of Coshlea Barony (Hib. Reg.). The terrier of the Down Survey parish map of Kilcoane and Effin stated that on the lands of Miles Fitz Harrish of Ballymacshaneboy there are 'the Ruines of a Castle' (NLI, MS 718). The 1654-56 Civil Survey of Limerick recorded that in 1640 Meiler Fitz Harrys of BallymcShanboy an Irish Papist was the owner of 'an old ruynous Castle, a Grist Mill & a tucking Milseat' (Simington 1938, 241). In 1840 the Ordnance Survey recorded that in Ballymacshaneboy 'there stood a Castle formerly, part of an arch belonging to which yet remains' (O'Flanagan 1932, 97; OSL Effin Parish). No surface remains visible of levelled castle.

See attached Down Survey map of Coshlea Barony.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 6 October 2021

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.

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

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.