Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

Located on an island of well drained land surrounded on three sides by bog with the ruins of Lemanaghan church (OF015-004003-) 85m to SE. Mac Coghlan tower house located inside an archaeological complex consisting of an early Christian monastery founded by St. Manchán in the 7th century, a multi-period church (OF015-004003-) dating from the Romanesque and late medieval date with several early Christian cross-slabs (OF015-004005-) and architectural fragments in the interior of the church. To the NW of the church there is a rectangular building (OF015-004009-) possibly of late medieval date. Holy well (OF015-004007-) and possible oratory or hermitage (OF015-004006-) and togher (OF015-004011-) located to the SE of the main church.
Lemanaghan Castle was mainly demolished in 1959. Old black and white photographs of the castle in the Magan Collection of Offaly County Council show that it was a square shaped tower of late 15th or early 16th century date similar to nearby Coole Castle (OF015-017----). The castle was probably a lobby entrance type tower house with a main chamber at each floor level with spiral stairs giving access to upper floor levels. The main chambers were lit by single light ogee-headed windows with stepped recessed spandrels. A double garderobe opening at ground floor level served two toilet shafts at first and second floor levels similar to nearby Togher Castle at Doon cross-roads. Mural passage at second floor level probably lead to garderobe in the angle of the castle which were lit by angle loops similar to Coole Castle. A sheela-na-gig (OF015-004002-) from Lemanaghan Castle was drawn in 1870, by Thomas Cooke of Birr, neither drawing nor stone can now be found (Weir 1980, 62; Freitag 2004, 145).
Present remains consist of only the ivy-covered SW angle which survives standing to a height of approx. 2.5m with the W wall standing 5.8m long and the S wall for a length of 4.3m. The wall thickness measures 0.96m with evidence of a slight base batter. Half of a two centred doorway with punch dressing lies scattered on the ground to the S of the castle. This doorway gives the building a late medieval date possibly 16th-century.
It was one of 28 castles located in Mac Coghlan’s Country (Mac Cuarta 1987, 177). In 1621 as part of Plantation of Delvin Mac Coghlan, the Gaelic estate of Lemanaghan Castle was granted to Oliver St. John, Lord Deputy of Ireland (Griffith 1966, 515). It was in Lemanaghan that Conell Mageoghagan of Lismoyny, Co. Westmeath wrote the English translation of the Annals of Clonmacnoise in 1627 under the patronage of his brother-in-law Terence Coghlan of nearby Kilcolgan Castle (OF015-011----) (Nicholls 1983, 452).
(Cooke 1875, 343-4; O' Flanagan 1933, vol. 1, 85)

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.

Compiled and revised by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of revised upload: 14 September 2018

References

Freitag, B. 2004 Sheela-na-gigs: unravelling an enigma. London. Routledge.

Mac Cuarta, B. 1987 Mathew De Renzy's Letters on Irish Affairs. Analecta Hibernica 34, 109-82.

Cooke, T.L. 1875 The early history of the town of Birr. Dublin. Robertson.

Irish Tourist Association. Surveys undertaken in the 1940s for the Irish Tourist Association (now Fáilte Ireland) relating to ‘Natural features, antiquities, historic associations etc.' Extracts from these surveys were copied into the Topographical files of the Office of Public Works and these have been incorporated into the Sites and Monuments Record files (National Monuments Service).

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1933 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the King's County collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1839. Bray.

Griffith, M.C. 1966 Irish patent rolls of James I. Dublin. Irish Manuscripts Commission.

Weir, A. 1980 Exhibitionists and related carvings in the Irish midlands: their origins and functions. In H. Murtagh (ed.), Irish midland studies: essays in commemoration of N.W. English, 57-72. Old Athlone Society.

Nicholls, K. W. (1983) The Mac Coghlans. Irish Genealogist, Vol. VI, no. 4, 452.