Castle - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

Located on an E-W natural ridge in pasture land. Extensive views to the N, E & W, rather restricted to the S by a higher ridge. The surrounding land is well drained pasture. The public road which transects the E side of the castle site forms the townland boundary with Templanstown. The Down Survey map of Demi Fore Barony shows a castle standing in the townland of Kiltoom, parish of Faughalstown (Hibernia Regnum) (PUB DS 3/24). The terrier of the Down Survey parish map of Faughalstown lists Garrett Dardis as the owner of the lands of Templanstown in 1640 and 'Richard Nugent, Earle of Westmeath' as the owner of the lands of 'Kiltoome' (NLI, MS 723-4). In the SE corner of a moated site or bawn (WM007-026001-) there is the outline of a rectangular building which marks the location of a castle site, known locally as 'The Temple' (Teampull) (OSNB). A low embankment runs from the NW corner of this building towards the bank on the northern side thus cutting off a rectangular enclosure to the north of the ‘house site’. In 1976 an ASI field report described the castle site as; 'At the SE corner there are the remains of a stone structure, square in plan and now largely grass-covered. This appears to be an addition to rather than part of the square enclosure and is probably the remains of the castle' (ASI report Thomas Fanning 29/06/1976).

See attached ASI plan of site of castle & moated site

See attached Down Survey Barony Map courtesy of Trinity College Dublin

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 16 August 2023

References

PUB DS 3/24, Published edition of the Down Survey of Ireland: Hibernia Regnum, known as 'The Down Survey' of the baronies of Ireland, Volume 3.   The ½ Barony of Foore in West Meath County at a scale of 160 perches to 1 inch. 1656-1659. Photolithographical reproduction of Bibliotheque National de France, Hibernia Regnum, Mss. Eng 1-2, 1908.

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. Hibernia Regnum: A set of 214 barony maps of Ireland dating to the period AD 1655-59. The original parish maps have been lost but the Hibernia Regnum maps are preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris (Goblet 1932, v-x). Photographic facsimiles of these maps were published by the Ordnance Survey, Southampton in 1908.