Gatehouse

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a slight rise on the S bank of a W-E section of the River Boyne, with the stream c. 75m to the N. According to the Civil Survey (1654-6) Mary Newgent owned 199 acres at Newhaggard in Trim parish in 1640 and on the premises were ‘one castle, two Mills, one weare with an orchard and some small cabins’ (Simington 1940, 169). An illustration by Austin Cooper c. 1785 shows it a ruined gateway with its passage open and two upper storeys (Price 1942, Pl. 43).

This is a rectangular structure (ext. dims 8.9m N-S; 8.1m E-W) with an entrance passage (Wth 2.55-3.34m) through it N-S, although both ends are closed off and provided with lintelled doorways. It was designed originally as a gateway, although there is no evidence of portcullis niches or rebates for gates. A flat-arched doorway towards the N end of the W external wall leads directly to a newel stairs that rises to the upper levels. A destroyed doorway from the stairs leads to the inserted first floor under the N-S barrel-vault, the floor being supported on joists set in the E and W walls, but this floor has no other features. At the second floor, over the vault, a destroyed doorway leads from the stairs to a square chamber with two windows on the E and S walls, and one on the N, but most of the W wall is destroyed. The pattern is repeated at the third floor with the joists for its floor set directly into the walls, but the parapet does not survive. All the windows are simple rectangles, apart from narrow lights on the stairs. There is no evidence of either fireplaces or garderobes, although they may have been in the W wall. The outer face of the N wall steps slightly forward at the second floor and is supported by four broad machicoulis. Archaeological testing (15E0506) by C. Duffy c. 250m to the W produced no related material (excavations.ie 2016:011; 2016:319).

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: 18 July 2016
Amended: 9 April, 2021

References

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

Price, L. (ed.) 1942 An eighteenth-century antiquary: the sketches, notes and Diaries of Austin Cooper, 1759-1880. Dublin.