Castle - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

Built on a low natural rise of ground in undulating countryside. Rectangular bawn wall (ext. H 3.5m; wall T 1.3m) which encloses a rectangular area (47m N-S ; 33m E-W) level with the top of the surviving bawn wall. The base of an oval shaped bastion (int. dims. 4.6m N-S; 8.6m E-W) survives at the NE angle with two opposing vertical garderobe chutes in the N and S walls where the bastion wall joins the main bawn wall. The chute in the N wall (int. dims. 0.7m by 1.5m) has an arched ope leading into the now destroyed moat. The wide flat bottomed moat (Wth. 6.5m; ext. D 0.75m) which originally enclosed the bawn survives on the NW side only. The bastions on the other three corners are destroyed with a peculiar square shaped bastion projecting out from the S end of the E wall, presumably the foundations of a square tower. The site is similar to the Powder Mills in Ballincollig Co. Cork where the towers on the bawn wall were the residential quarters of the castle. This site is probably a late 16th/17th-century plantation castle. The raised interior of the Bawn has slight evidence of possible rectangular structures along the inside of the bawn wall.

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Offaly' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload: 23 May 2011