House - fortified house

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on flat well drained land with good views. Poorly preserved L-plan house (ext. dims. 29.7m E-W; 28m N-S; wall T 0.8m) three storeys high with attic above which is lit by two small windows on the W gable one either side of the chimney flue which has three Jacobean style chimney stacks constructed with brick. Directly opposite the destroyed door on the S wall there is a gabled projecting tower from the N wall which contained the stairs now destroyed with a later brick lined round arched window. Windows are all large rectangular flat headed types. Evidence of possible bawn wall to the S of the house. The W end of the house is orientated on an E-W axis while the E end is orientated on a N-S axis and is only two storeys high with later structure added to the E end of the N wall. All fireplaces have spiral chimney flues which feed into one central chimney stack, this can be seen on the W gable and at the E end of the N wall. As a result all fireplaces are set off centre on the wall. Probable late 17th-century house built on the site of Mac Coghlan castle mentioned in the Annals of the Four Masters in the year 1556 (ITA Survey 1942). (Cooke 1875, 335; O' Flanagan 1933, vol. 1, 59; Garner 1985, 39)

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

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

Garner, W.J. 1985 Churches and houses of architectural interest in Co. Offaly. Dublin. An Foras Forbartha.

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.

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).