Bawn

The National Monuments Service's description

Built, probably c. 1600-1610, by Sir Charles Coote. His son, Sir Charles, was besieged here by Con O'Rourke in 1641 and again in 1643 by John Burke, both of whom failed to capture it. The original house was burned in 1798, being replaced by a farmhouse which is still occupied. It is situated on a rise overlooking the NW-SE Boyle river, c. 150m to the SW.

The remains consist of the square bawn (int. dims. 57m N-S; 57m E-W) defined by masonry walls which survive almost complete (H c. 3m; T 0.8m) at the N and E sides, and at the N end of the W side. The N wall has its original eight gun-loops, with surviving totals of four on the E and three on the W walls. The SE corner tower is incorporated in the present dwelling but the NE and NW circular towers (int. diam. 3.9m) have two storeys, with three gun-loops on each ground floor and fireplaces on the first. A fragment of the original house (RO007-015001-) consisting of a chimney stack straddles the line of the S bawn wall, where the original entrance to the bawn was probably located. Archaeological testing c. 20-40m S of the bawn produced post-medieval maerial (Read 2008c), while testing c. 150-300m to the SE-S produced no archaeological material (Read 2009c; Delaney 2008, 2009b). Archaeological testing during 2008 on the line of the bawn wall at E produced evidence of the bawn wall and internal features (Read 2011b). (Grose 1791, 82-4; D'Alton 1845, 118-9)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 20th June, 2011.

References

D'Alton, J. 1845 The history of Ireland: from the earliest period to the year 1245. 2 vol. Dublin, Author.

Grose, F. 1791 The antiquities of Ireland, 2 vols. London. S. Hooper.

Read, C. 2009c Cootehall: no archaeological significance. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2006: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 456, No. 1719. Dublin. Wordwell.

Read, C. 2011b Clegna, Cootehall: late/post-medieval. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2008: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 305, No. 1029. Dublin. Wordwell.

Read, C. 2008c Clegna, Cootehall: post-medieval. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2005: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 323-4, No. 1327. Dublin. Wordwell.

Delaney, D. 2009b Cootehall: no archaeological significance. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2006: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 456, No. 1720. Dublin. Wordwell.

Delaney, D. 2008 Cootehall: no archaeological significance. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2005: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 323, No. 1323. Dublin. Wordwell.