House - 16th/17th century

The National Monuments Service's description

A castle at Bealamully had been lost by Myles Cavanagh to Irish rebels by 1596 (Cronin 1980, 117), which may have been at this location close to Bealanamullia. Traditionally Cartron castle is associated with St Ruth, who commanded the Jacobite forces in 1691 and who was dallying there while the Williamites captured Athlone (Egan 2007, 149-50). In 1641 110 acres at Cloonakille, just to the W, was leased by George Devonish from Lord Wilmott (Simington 1949, 92), and it is possible that he might have built this house. The armorial stone now at Mullagh (RO048-189----), commemorating the building of a house in 1627 by George Devonish, might have come from this monument, which was described as a house by J. O'Donovan in the 1830s (O'Flanagan 1931, vol. 1, 29; Herity 2010, 19). Cartron has also been identified as the site of the castle of Onagh – Muille Uainidhe – the mill rather than the hill (mullach) of Onagh, which was built c. 1236 and is mentioned again in 1170 (ALC) (Anon. 1968, 19-22; Ó Murchadha, 1994-5, 23). However, if Onagh castle was in this Bealnamully area it may have been the motte and bailey at Ballycreggan (RO048-113001-).
Cartron castle is depicted as a N-S structure on the E side of a minor road and described as 'Cartron Castle (in Ruins)' only on the 1915 ed. of the OS 6-inch map. The house is situated on a SW-facing slope, and described as a rectangular structure (dims c. 10.5m x c. 5m) of two storeys with a projecting chimney stack at one end which tapered as it rose (Anon 1994, 118-9). It was removed in the early 1980s, and an archaeological excavation (E000877) near the monument failed to produce any related archaeological material (Morahan 1986). The rectangular field (dims c. 95m E-W; c. 90m N-S) defined by stone walls c. 30m to the NW and bounded by a lane on the N and E may have been a walled garden associated with the castle.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of revised upload: 15 May 2017

References

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1931 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Roscommon collected during the progress of the
Ordnance Survey in 1837. Bray.

Egan, E. 2007 Bygone times: a near forgotten history. Athlone. Drum Heritage Group.

Freeman, A.M. (ed.) 1936 The Compossicion Booke of Conought. Dublin. Stationery Office.

Cronin, T. 1980 The Elizabethan colony in Co. Roscommon. In Murtagh, H. Irish midland studies: essays in commemoration of N.W. English, 107-20. Old Athlone Society.

Anon. 1994a Drum and its hinterland. Drum Heritage Group.

Simington, R.C. (ed.) 1949 Books of survey and distribution. County of Roscommon. Dublin. Stationery Office.

Morahan, L. 1986 Cartron site of castle. In I. Bennet (ed.), Excavations 1985: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 33, No. 47. Bray. Wordwell.

Herity, M. (ed.) 2010 Ordnance Survey Letters, Roscommon. Dublin, Fourmasters Press

Ó Murchadha, D. 1994-5 A reconsideration of some place-names from the Annals of Connacht. Ainm, vol. 6, 1-31.

Anon. 1968 As Cartlan na Logainmneacha. Dinnseanachas, vol. 3, No. 1, 17-22.