Castle - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

In rough pasture, on a gentle SW-facing slope with a stream c. 100m to SW. It was listed in 1633-6 as 'a good Castle . . . and a lowe Irish mill' (Wood-Martin 1889, 158): the exact location of the mill (SL037-111----) is unknown. The area of the castle has been surface quarried and is now covered by quarry scars and spoil heaps. Four pieces of fallen masonry lie on the S side of a slight rise. Immediately NE of these is a linear depression (L 25m; Wth 5m; D 0.3m), wet in places, which may be the remains of a fosse. The castle was indicated on the 1838 OS 6-inch map as a roughly rectangular structure (35m NE-SW; 30m NW-SE), with a small rectangular enclosure (c. 15m NE-SW; c. 20m NW-SE) and three small structures adjacent to SE. A late 18th-century drawing shows a complex of ruined buildings here, part of which appears to stand to 1st-floor level (Grose 1791, vol. 2, facing p. 47). In 1836 it was recorded as an O'Hara castle in ruins (OSL, 388-9). A church and graveyard (SL037-037001-; SL037-037002-) lie c. 200m to WSW.

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).

Revised by: Paul Walsh

Date of upload: 31 July 2012