House - fortified house

The National Monuments Service's description

Located on a slight rise in undulating countryside. Only the square bawn (OF015-011002-) with its SE and SW corner towers survive (ext. diam. 8.1m; wall T 0.85m), originally there were four towers. These towers are curious in their construction in that their interior is perfectly circular while they each have an external angle on their side facing away from the bawn. The towers were originally three storeys high with a doorway to each level accessed from an external wooden stairs inside the bawn. Fireplace at first floor level of tower, two centred door with punch dressed jambs and drafted margins. The other doors are all destroyed. At ground floor level there are two small rectangular windows one flanking either side of the destroyed doorway. The S wall of the bawn has a machicolation and rectangular chimney stack at first floor level, which may be the only surviving remains of the destroyed fortified house (approx. ext. dims. 32m E-W; 36m N-S). The machicolation may have protected an entrance to the house. The original entrance to the bawn was at the E end of the N wall which is now destroyed. Above the original entrance was a date stone 1649 (ITA Survey 1942; Anon 1874-5, 163) now removed. The fortified house was destroyed in the 1950's by the ESB for rubble to build the nearby power station. Photograph of castle in the architectural archive shows the L-plan fortified house two storeys high with crenellated wall walk, Jacobean chimney stacks with transomed and mullioned windows. Mac Coghlan castle which was visited by Rinuccini in 1648 on his way from Kilkenny to Galway (Fear Ceall 1958, 348-58). (Cooke 1875, 342; 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.

Date of upload: 23 May 2011

References

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.

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

Anon. 1874 Proceedings. The Journal of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland 3, 151-82.

Fear Ceall 1958 Conntae an Riogh. Journal of the Kildare Archaeological Society 13, 345-63.