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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Castle - tower house

Cregga, County Roscommon, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Castle - tower house, Cregga, County Roscommon, with a pin at the register's coordinates
Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915), covering this location. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland. The pin is ours, placed from the register's coordinates.

The record

Townland
Cregga
County
Roscommon
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Indicated
Coordinates
53.81997, -8.13305
SMR number
RO023-200001-

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

4 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1790 map "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1790 · Composite: Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1811 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1869 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

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This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

Marked as a structure on the 1837 and 1914 eds of the OS 6-inch map, and situated at the NE edge of a karst limestone outcrop which is at the top of Cregga Hill. It is traditionally regarded as the site of a Mac Dermot Roe castle, although it is more likely to be O'Conor Roe (Lewis 1837, vol. 2, 217). A rectangular structure (int. dims 8.3m N-S; 3.8m N-S; H 2.6m) is excavated in a rock face, with a destroyed fireplace (Wth 1.8m) and flue in the masonry face of the W wall. There is a blocked doorway (Wth 0.9m) towards the E end of the N wall with a cupboard (Wth 0.9m; D 0.4m; H 1.2m) beside it. A masonry vault is built overhead (H c. 4m) with a window under the vault in the E wall and a doorway (Wth 0.8m; H 1.6m) under the vault in its W wall (T 1.3m plus). This doorway leads onto the top of the outcrop but there is no evidence of further floors. The building was converted into a coach house when a large flat-arched doorway (Wth 2.15m; H 3.15m) with an external rebate was inserted into the E wall. House (RO023-200002-) is c. 100m to the E. (Kennedy 2000)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 24 August 2010

References

Lewis, S. 1837 A topographical dictionary of Ireland, 2 vols. London. Lewis and Co.

Kennedy, M. 2000 The highs and lows of the Cregga Hills. Journal of the Roscommon Historical and Archaeological Society 8, 80-2.

Nearby in the register

Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.

Sites and Monuments Record data: National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Record text is reproduced unchanged. National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland · CC BY 4.0
All Castle - tower house in Roscommon All County Roscommon records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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