Bawn

The National Monuments Service's description

Carlanstown House and its adjoining farmyard are enclosed by the bawn wall of Carlanstown Castle. This Nugent castle appears to have consisted of a large 17th century bawn with four flanking gun-turrets with possible fortified house (WM001-031001-) standing in SW quadrant of bawn. In 1641 'Carolanstowne' Castle was the property of Robert Nugent who was listed as an 'Irish Papist' in the 1657 Down Survey map of Lickbla parish (NLI, MS 723-4). The castle is depicted as a large castellated structure on the 1657 Down Survey map of Fore Barony (ibid.).
In 1864 George Victor Du Noyer sketched the bawn wall of Carlanstown Castle and drew up plans and elevation drawings of the angle towers (George Victor Du Noyer, “W face of Carlanstown Castle Co. W Meath. Sheet 1/3,” Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, accessed November 20, 2017, http://rsai.locloudhosting.net/items/show/23489.). The collection of Du Noyer drawings of this castle are available online on the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland website (https://rsai.locloudhosting.net/collections/show/2).
Only the W and N walls of the bawn survive intact with a short stretch of the N end of the E wall surviving. A large part of the interior of the bawn is now covered in post-1700 farm buildings belonging to Carlanstown House. Punch dressed stone belonging to the castle has been re-used in the fabric of the farm buildings standing inside the bawn. A modern slurry pit has been constructed a few metres N of the NW angle tower and a modern agricultural shed has been built up against the N wall of the bawn located off center to W.
Present remains consist of a square shaped bawn (approx. int. dims. 50m N-S x 58m E-W) enclosed by stone wall originally defended by four circular-shaped corner towers of which two survive upstanding at NW and NE angles as depicted on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map. The angle towers possessed horizontal gun loops which provided flanking fire along the external face of the bawn wall. The larger NW angle tower (ext. diam. 4.5m; int. diam. 2.8m) is the best preserved and now stands two storeys high with mural stairs at ground floor giving access to spiral stairs at first floor level (Salter 2004, 246). This tower stands on a large protruding plinth and the ground floor has three horizontal gun-loops. The smaller NE angle tower was converted into a dovecote probably in the 18th century when a small circular shaped stone tower was built on top of the flanker. This NE angle tower has several horizontal gun-loops at ground floor level but the tower does not appear to have a protruding foundation plinth.
The bawn wall protrudes out to form a semi-circular projection at the S end of the W wall of the bawn and close to a projecting chimney stack. Both of these features appear to belong to the fortified house or Carlanstown Castle (WM001-031001-) which stood in the SW angle of the bawn. The semi-circular shaped projection with gun-loops may have served as an angle tower for the fortified house. 19th century stables now run E off the semi-circular shaped tower. This projecting tower is depicted on the OS 25-inch map.
No visible remains of the SE angle tower survive. The S wall of the bawn no longer survives upstanding with 19th century stables standing on line of this wall. Carlanstown House appears to have been built on or close to the line of the destroyed S wall of the bawn. Only a short section of the N end of the E wall (approx. L 12m) remains intact. The remaining section of the E wall of the bawn no longer survives with 19th century farm buildings standing in the area of the destroyed E wall.
The bawn wall survives fully intact on the W and N sides, with only a short stretch of the N section of the E wall upstanding. A square-headed doorway on S side of bawn built into the stables with scroll brackets (WM001-031001-) has a date stone above. The scroll brackets possibly dates from the late 17th or early 18th century and may have come from Carlanstown Castle.
Post-1700 farm buildings and farmyard occupies the S half of the bawn area. 19th-century Carlanstown House stands along the line of the destroyed S wall of the bawn. This house was described by the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage as a 'Detached three-bay two-storey house, built c.1800, with projecting flat-roofed single-bay single-storey porch to centre of front façade (south). Possibly incorporating the fabric of an earlier house. Later two-storey extension adjoining to the east. This structure probably replaced an earlier house or castle (WM001-031001-) on the same site and forms part of an impressive group of structures with the extensive remains of a sixteenth/seventeenth century fortified bawn to the rear (north) of the present structure (www.buildingsofireland.ie).

Compiled and revised by: Frank Coyne and Caimin O’Brien

Date of revised upload: 17 November 2017

References

Salter, M. 2004 The castles of Leinster. Worcestershire. Folly Publications.

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.