Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated in undulating pasture-land on W facing slope of a low natural ridge, with good views to the NW, NE & S. Post medieval corn mill and millrace possibly built on site of medieval watermill (WM008-026----) 110m to the SSW. Stream used as a millrace located 75m to W. The 1659 Down Survey map of Fore barony depicts a tower house type castle standing beside a stream in this general area (NLI MS 723-4).
A sub-rectangular shaped mound of grass covered stones (dims. 15m N-S; 14.6m E-W; max. H 2m), with pieces of limestone masonry bonded with mortar along the perimeter of the mound at W & SSE marks the site of this castle depicted on the 1659 Down Survey map of St. Mary's parish (NLI MS 723-4). Two sub-rectangular shaped depressions (dims 7.8m N-S; 3.5m E-W; 4.8m N-S; 5.8m E-W) are visible on the surface of the mound. The land around the mound shows traces of old cultivation ridges running roughly E-W. There are faint indications of earthworks possibly belonging to a bawn wall to N of mound which are visible on Digital Globe aerial photograph taken November 2011.

Compiled by: Frank Coyne and Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 19 April 2017

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.