Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Castle - unclassified
Castletown Upper, County Westmeath, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Castletown Upper
- County
- Westmeath
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- Site of Castle
- Latest-edition OS map
- Castle (Site of)
- Coordinates
- 53.75414, -7.32507
- SMR number
- WM001-019----
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
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1636 "Vltoniae Orientalis Pars" (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
Site of levelled castle is marked at the wrong location on the revised editions of the OS 6-inch and 25-inch maps. Castle site of is marked on the first ed. OS 6-inch map in an area occupied by a cluster of buildings and not in the field to the SW where the Ordnance Survey have mistakenly shown the location of the castle site. No surface remains visible of any castle in area marked on six-inch map. In 1837 the castle was described in the Ordnance Survey memoranda as 'an Old Castle in Ruins' (SMR file). This castle may have been located in the area where a cluster of buildings are depicted on the first ed. OS 6-inch map. A small square shaped building depicted on this map may have been the castle building mentioned in the OS memoranda.
The area where the castle is marked on the revised 1911 ed. OS 25-inch map was visited by the ASI in 1981 when land reclamation works were being carried out in the area marked on the OS map. At this time the ASI survey recorded that the site was visited 'while bulldozing operations to remove field fence were in progress. There is no indication in the disturbed band of earth of the former existence of a castle there. A no. of stones are visible but none of these appear to be building stones. There are no traces of walls or foundations visible. The landowner informed me that he has ploughed all the fields in the immediate vicinity with a horse-drawn plough in the past & no trace of a castle has ever turned up’ (ASI Field Report 24/02/1981).
Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien
Date of upload: 16 November 2016
Nearby in the register
- Ringfort - rathunder 1 mi
- Ringfort - rathunder 1 mi
- Ringfort - rathunder 1 mi
- Ringfort - rathunder 1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.