Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

There was a FitzGerald manor and castle at Ticroghan in the sixteenth century. It was held by Oliver, the half-brother of the Earl of Kildare, in 1528 (Valkenburg 1970, 534). In 1557 ‘the site of the manor and castle of Tecroghane, part of the possessions of Walter FitzGerald, attained’, was leased to John Parker, Keeper of the Rolls (Nicholls 1994, 1, 315). Walter may have been implicated in the rebellion of Silken Thomas in 1535, but even though the FitzGeralds were restored to some Meath possession in 1564, Ticroghan was excluded (ibid. 2, 154-6). In 1571 the manor of Ticroghan was leased to Anthony Lowe and in 1574 to the Earl of Ormonde (ibid. 2, 224, 326), but in 1599 Edward, the son of George FitzGerald who had been slain by rebels, was restored to Ticroghan (ibid. 3, 345-6). According to the Civil Survey (1654-6) Sir Luke FitzGerald owned 425 acres at Techraghan in 1640 and on the premises were ‘a castle, a mill and divers cabins and farm houses’ (Simington 1940, 187). He also owned 600 acres in Clonard parish at Moorelicke (73 acres), Ballinibarny (100), Tonlaught (120), Ardnemullan and Aghelliah (166), Kilvardan (90) and Rossan (52) (ibid. 186-8). During the siege of Drogheda by Cromwell in 1649, the Earl of Ormonde was at Ticroghan (Simms 1973-4) but in 1650 Lady FitzGerald, a daughter of Sir Luke, resisted an attack by Cromwellian forces but did surrender (Wilde 1850, 64).

The castle is represented as a large structure of two towers and a connecting wing on the Down Survey barony map of Moyfenrath and the parish map of Clonard. (see this web-site accessed on 15/08/2016: http://downsurvey.tcd.ie/). At some point the bastioned fort (ME046-010----) was constructed around what was probably a tower house, and Ticroghan continued to be garrisoned into the reign of King Charles II (Kerrigan 1995, 97). The date of this structure is not known, but it might have been built by Ormonde in 1649. The castle survived into the late 18th century and the ruin is depicted by Cooper in 1794 (Price 1942, Pl. 42) as a large three storey structure. It had large windows with square hood-mouldings on two upper floors over a round-headed doorway remarkably similar to that in the nearby chapel (ME046-009----). There is also a three storey tower that may have been hexagonal and other ruined outbuildings. It is located on a level landscape, about 1.5km S of the old Dublin to Athlone road that passes through Clonard and Kinnegad, and c. 700m S of the new line of the M4 motorway. What became known as ‘Queen Mary’s Castle’ was situated at the S angle of the bastioned fort, but there are no indications of a masonry structure now.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 16 August, 2016

References

Valkenburg, A. 1970 Walter Wellesley, Bishop of Kildare, 147?-1539. Journal of the Kildare Archaeological Society 14, 518-43.

Simms, J. G. 1973-4 Cromwell at Drogheda, The Irish Sword, vol. 11, 211-22.

Nicholls, K.W. (ed.) 1994 The Irish fiants of the Tudor sovereigns during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Philip & Mary, and Elizabeth I, 4 vols. Dublin. Éamonn de Búrca for Edmund Burke Publisher.

Price, L. (ed.) 1942 An Eighteenth Century Antiquary. Falconer, Dublin.

Kerrigan P.M. 1995 Castles and fortifications in Ireland 1485-1945. Cork. The Collins Press.

Wilde, W. 1850 The beauties of the Boyne and its tributary, the Blackwater (2nd ed). Dublin. McGlashan.

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