Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a low rise of ground on flat well drained pasture land. A tower house type castle is depicted on the 1657 Down Survey map of Foyran parish (NLI, MS 723-4). On this map the castle is shown standing immediately N of a roadway running towards the castle (WM001-001----) and bridge (WM001-052----) of Finnea. The present road appears to be following the line of this medieval routeway. The terrier of the 1657 Down Survey map of Foyran parish lists Edward Symon as the owner in 1641 of the lands of Togher (ibid.).
Poorly preserved rectangular-shaped tower house (int. dims. 7.8m E-W x 5.4m N-S; wall T 1.1-1.4m) of which only the ivy-clad S wall survives upstanding to first floor level (H c. 9m), elsewhere only the low wall footings are visible. The S wall has a slight batter and was constructed of coursed mortared limestone with dressed quoins visible on the SE and SW angles. A broken out window was visible at ground floor level which was set into a large recessed opening in the centre of the S wall. Directly above at first floor level there was a round-headed window now obscured by ivy. Photographs of the S wall taken in the 1970s show joist holes above the ground floor window to support the wooden floor of the castle. No clear evidence of a doorway although it may have been located ay N end of the E wall. There was no stone vault over the ground of the castle which may indicate a later date. The interior of the castle is now filled with collapsed rubble and some rubbish. There are no visible remains of an enclosing bawn or of any earthworks indicating the presence of a bawn around the tower house.

Compiled by: Frank Coyne & Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 15 November 2016

References

NLI, MS 723-4 - National Library of Ireland, The parish maps of the Down Survey for the County of Westmeath, attested by W. Petty, in 1659. Copied by Daniel O'Brien. A set of 67 maps with accompanying terriers in two volumes, 1786-7. Dublin.