Castle - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a bluff (H c. 20m at S) overlooking a weir on a W-E section of the River Boyne which is c. 100m to the S and c. 20m lower. This could be an early castle but its history is obscure. It withstood a siege by rebels in 1641 until Captain Power, its commander, was persuaded to surrender. According to the Civil Survey (1654-6) Thomas Darcy owned the entire parish consisting of 395 acres in 1640, and on the premises there was ‘a Castle, a Church, a Mill, an Orchard and a fishing weare’ (Simington 1940, 322). The D’Arcy family appears to have retained the castle in the Cromwellian settlement and rebuilt it in the reign of James II (1685-89). A drawing from 1795 by Francis Grose (1795, 82-3) shows it an occupied rectangular structure but it is said to have been burned in the rising of 1798 when the north half of it collapsed (Wilde 1849, 166-9).

This is a large rectangular structure (dims c. 15m E-W; c. 10m N-S) with circular towers at the angles, but only those at SE and SW survive. The ground floor is buried but was vaulted and had a loft as well as well as two rows of long arrow-loops on the S wall which could indicated a thirteenth century date. There is a newel stairs in the SW tower which has a key-hole gun-loop. The first floor has large windows that are robbed. There is a two-storey gabled building with an oven at the ground floor attached to the E. The church (ME025-018001-) is immediately adjacent to the W. (Sweetman 1999, 99-100)

See the attached view from Grose (1795)

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Meath' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1987). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 10 July 2007
Revised: 29 March 2023

Grose, F. 1791-5 The antiquities of Ireland. 2 vols London, S. Hooper
Wilde, W. R. W. 1849 (reprinted 1978) The Beauties of the Boyne and its tributary, the Blackwater. McGlashan, Dublin

References

Simington, R.C. (ed.) 1940 The Civil survey, AD 1654-1656. Vol. V: county of Meath. Dublin. Irish Manuscripts Commission.

Sweetman, D. 1999 The medieval castles of Ireland. Cork. The Collins Press.