Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Castle - tower house
Middlequarter (Newcastle Par.), County Tipperary South, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Middlequarter (Newcastle Par.)
- County
- Tipperary South
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- New Castle
- Latest-edition OS map
- New Castle (in Ruins)
- Coordinates
- 52.27485, -7.81549
- SMR number
- TS088-032002-
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid 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)
- 1882 · Ireland (southern half). (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
- 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
- 1904 · Sheet 13. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
On the NE-facing slope of the SW bank of the river Suir in rolling pasture, a church (TS088-032001) is c.130m to SSE. The manor of Newcastle was held by the Prendergast family from the 13th to the 17th century. The Civil Survey of 1654-6 records 'Edmond Prendergast of NewCastle Esqr, Irish Papist' as proprietor in 1640 and relates that a 'Court-leet and a Court-Barron are appendant to the sd Mannor of NewCastle whereupon stands the walls of a house and a castle with a bawne about them and an orchard' (Simington 1931, vol. 1, 331-2). A rectangular tower house (ext. dims. 11.3m NW-SE; 15.7m NE-SW; SW wall T 2m) built of limestone rubble, roughly coursed, with a high base-batter (H 2m; Wth 0.12m), with associated bawn (TS088-032003-). Only the ground-floor level with its vaulted roof survives. The doorway, externally rebated and chamfered with head missing, is midway along the NE wall (T 2.1m), with a yett-hole in the E jamb. A mural stairs (Wth 0.55m) rises eastwards in the thickness of the wall. There are two barrel-vaulted chambers at ground-floor level running along a NW-SE axis. Access from one chamber to the other is via a doorway roughly centrally placed in the partition wall, but no cut-stone surrounds survive. The partition wall is not keyed into the main structure. The NE chamber (dims. 3m x 11.2m) was lit by a flat-headed single light in a deep splayed embrasure in the NE wall and a window, now blocked, in the SE wall. The SW chamber was lit by a flat-headed single light in a deep splayed embrasure at the W end of the SW wall. The SE wall of this chamber has been broken out and a sandstone arch inserted with a dated carved head keystone of '1796'. The jambs have been rebuilt with concrete. A garderobe chute exits at the N end of the NW wall, c. 1.3m above the external ground level.
Compiled by: Jean Farrelly
Date of upload: 2 December 2013
References
Simington, R.C. (ed.) 1931 The Civil survey, AD 1654-1656. Vol I: county of Tipperary: eastern and southern baronies. Dublin. Irish Manuscripts Commission.
Nearby in the register
- Bawnunder 1 mi
- Graveyardunder 1 mi
- Churchunder 1 mi
- Ritual site - holy wellunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.