Settlement deserted - medieval

The National Monuments Service's description

A church (WM012-003----) and a medieval hall or building (WM012-023----) are depicted on the 1654-56 Down Survey map of Leny and Tyfarnham parish (NLI, MS 723-4). The terrier of the Down Survey parish map recorded that in this parish are 'Scituate the Hall & Church of Tyfarnan' (ibid.)
Tyfarnham church is annotated as a 'Chapel' on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map where it is shown standing in the W quadrant of a churchyard (WM012-003001-). The levelled chapel stands in a field covered with numerous rectilinear earthworks clustered to the NE and which are clearly visible on Digital Globe aerial photograph taken November 2011. The earthworks appear to form a series of small rectangular enclosures and may represent a clustered settlement contemporaneous with the church and hall. In the NE corner of this field are the remains of a square-shaped enclosure . Immediately S of the chapel there is a curving linear earthwork which possibly represents the remains of a sunken way or roadway. Cultivation ridges running roughly E-W and N-S are also visible on the aerial photographs. A rectangular-shaped earthwork (WM012-023----) located 155m to the S may represent the remains of the 'Hall' depicted on the 1654-56 Down Survey map of Leny and Tyfarnham parishes.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 16 November 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.