Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

Located on a level landscape. According to the Civil Survey (1654-6) Sir James Dillon, the first Earl of Roscommon and a Protestant, owned 210 acres at Moymet in Navan barony in 1640, and the property included ‘a Castle, a Church ruinated, a stone house, an open Quarry, and an orchard’ (Simington 1940, 204). This is a tower house of four storeys, with the remains of a stone house (ME030-023001-) c. 15m to the W. The gatehouse (ME030-022----) is 80m to N and the parish church of Moymet (ME030-021----) is 90m to the NW. Immediately to the N of the tower house is a rectangular raised area (dims 12m N-S; 12m E-W; H 0.5-0.8m) and the field system (ME030-024----) was c. 200m to the E.
This is a rectangular structure (ext. dims c. 10.75m N-S; 8.05m E-W) with a projecting rectangular tower (dims 4.5m N-S; c. 5m E-W) at the NE angle. The main ground floor chamber has two double-splay loops on the E wall and one on the S. There is a single pointed light at the S end of the W wall but most of this wall and the N wall, and the N-S barrel-vault do not survive. There may have been a projecting tower at the NW angle to accommodate a doorway and stairs. The surviving projecting tower has a destroyed E-W barrel-vault and a light in the E wall at the ground floor together with a broken-out garderobe chute on its S wall.
The first floor has a large window in the E wall with a garderobe chamber just N of it. There is a fireplace at the S end of the W wall and a destroyed window in the S wall. The projecting tower has a fireplace in the N wall, a light in the S and a large destroyed window in the E. The second floor of the main chamber has a large window in the E wall, a blocked light and a fragment of a fireplace in the W wall, and a destroyed window in the S wall, while the projecting tower has a large destroyed window in the E wall and a light in the S. The third floor has a window and fireplace in the E wall of the main chamber, a blocked window in the W wall, and a destroyed one in the S. The projecting tower has a blocked window in the N wall and a smaller opening in the E wall. The parapet does not survive.

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 revision: 28 June 2016

References

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