House - 16th/17th century

The National Monuments Service's description

In a demesne, overlooking Lough Arrow to the S. The present early 19th-century Ballindoon House (Bence-Jones 1988, 18) is reputed to be on the site of a 17th-century house (pers. comm. M. A. Timoney). That house may have been the small rectangular structure (roughly on the site of the present house) indicated on the 1838 OS 6-inch map at the SE end of a tree-lined linear avenue (L c. 400m) (SL034-253----). This avenue (Wth 16m) is cambered and flanked on either side by a drain (Wth 2.5m; int. D 0.2m; ext. D 0.5m to the top of the external bank) with a low broad external earthen bank (Wth 2m; ext. H 0.6m). The central portion has a gravel surface but otherwise it is entirely an earthen construction. It is similar to the avenue at Annaghmore (SL026-049----) and is probably 17th/early 18th-century in date. Another house, named 'Kingsborough Ho.', which no longer survives, is indicated on the 1838 OS 6-inch map, c. 50m to the S of the present Ballindoon House. According to local information, stones from the nearby Ballindoon Castle (SL034-220001-), c. 0.9km to the SE, were taken to build Ballindoon House.

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Sligo' compiled by Ursula Egan, Elizabeth Byrne, Mary Sleeman with Sheila Ronan and Connie Murphy (Dublin Stationery Office, 2005).

Date of upload: 18 January 2008