Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on low-lying grassland overlooked by gently rising ground to the SW. Nunnery (WM011-121---) 200m to NE. A rectangular shaped area (approx. dims. 20m NW-SE; 25m NE-SW) enclosed by an earthen bank and shallow external fosse marks the site of Laragh Castle which is depicted as a tower house type structure on the 1654-9 Down Survey map of Kilmacnevan parish where it is shown standing on the lands of Robert Fitzgerald, an 'Irish Papist' (NLI, MS 723-4). The terrier of this parish map recorded that there 'are three Castles in this Parrish lately ruinous vizt. in Emper (WM010-002----) one, in Ballintue (WM010-040001-) one and at Laragh one' (ibid.). The NW side of the enclosure has been largely levelled. Traces of cultivation ridges are visible running NE-SW across the interior. This enclosure is at the centre of a complex of earthworks which covers an area measuring approximately 4 hectares. There is a possible hollow way running NW-SE, 40m to N and an earthen mound 80mto NNE

Compiled by: Frank Coyne and Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 28 August 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.