House - 17th century

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated in a local hollow at the SW foot hills of the Lough Crew Hills. The Plunkett land at Loughcrew was acquired by the Naper family in the 1650s, and they built a house close to the church (ME015-027----), which is c. 100m to the SE. A walled garden (ME015-119001-) was also built just to the NW and both are marked on a map of 1778 where the house is depicted as a long narrow structure divided in two by an entrance passage (Hanly 1965, Pl. 2). By 1836 when the 1st ed. of the OS 6-inch map was made the house had been removed. The outline of the house was revealed below the surface in reconstituting the Lough Crew gardens in the 1990s. The cobbled surface of an E-W road (Wth 4.8m; L c. 50m) with a drain (Wth 0.3m) and outer path (Wth 0.9m) at the S side are on the S side of the house, which remains grass-covered and is evident as a two-roomed structure (dims 23.3m E-W; 6m N-S) on the W side of a cobbled passage (Wth 2.5m) with other rooms on the E side (dims c. 14m E-W; 6m N-S). The gateway (ME015-119002-) now in the walled garden may have adorned this passage. An area of cobbling in a diamond pattern is exposed at one point in the E structure. It is composed of panels (dims c. 0.75m x 0.75m) outlined by upright stones and in-filled with smaller cobbles.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 12 December, 2014

References

Hanly, J. 1965 Oldcastle and Loughcrew 1788. Ríocht na Mídhe, vol. 3, 3, 249-52.