Castle - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

Archerstown Castle is mentioned in the terrier of the 1655-9 Down Survey map of Little Castletown parish (NLI, MS 723-4). The terrier recorded that 'There is a Castle in Archerstowne in repaire with a Bawne an Orchard and some Ash Trees and A chappell of Ease (WM008-045----) in Repaire' (ibid.). In 1641 the castle and lands of Archerstown belonged to William Goulding [Golding]. The 17th century Down Survey parish map of Little Castletown depicts a castle to the W and in close proximity to a chapel of ease (WM008-045----). The castle ruins are marked on Larkin's 1808 map of County Westmeath (NLI, MS 46,580). The area where this castle ruin is marked was visited in 1980 and described as following; 'There is nothing now visible in the field indicated to suggest the presence of a structure. A rectangular enclosure against the field fence (running NW-SE, see OS 6 inch) on the N side of the field outlined by a very faint low bank with a narrow shallow outer fosse may be no more than an old field’ (ASI Field Report 21/03/1980). There are earthworks visible in this area on Digital Globe aerial photograph taken November 2011 which may be the remains of the ruins marked on Larkin;'s 1808 map of Co. Westmeath
The Ordnance Survey Field name Book (No. 8, p. 2) for Archerstown recorded in 1837 that, ‘There are ruins of 2 ancient castles in this townland’. This latter reference suggests that there were two medieval castles in the townland of Archerstown.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 21 September 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.

NLI, MS 46,580 - National Library of Ireland, A map of the county of Westmeath by William Larkin. Dublin.