Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

Clonyn House (WM013-014----) and its landscaped gardens are described in the terrier of the 1654-57 Down map of Castletown parish which recorded that the in ‘Clonyn there is the ruines of a fayre house with a fewe backroomes Wherein the Earle of West Meath dwells with a faire orchard and a garden with a grove of trees’ (NLI, MS 723-4). Clonyn House is not depicted on the Down Survey maps. This 'fayre house' was probably built on the site of or incorporated the medieval castle belonging to the Nugent family. In 1538 an inquisition into the estate of the recently deceased Richard Nugent, Baron of Delvin listed ‘Clonyn. A castle and 160a arable; worth £8’ as part of his estate (Ainsworth 1958, 126).
Present remains consist of the ruins of an ivy-clad multi-period house. The core of the building consists of a late seventeenth century five bay gabled house standing two storeys high. This central house has been extended to the N and S. A square turret built on to the S side of the range bears a plaque with the Nugent crest (WM013-014002-). Throughout the ruins there are numerous pieces of sparrow-pecked dressed stone, typical of the fifteenth and sixteenth century which has been incorporated into the fabric of the ruins. This stonework probably came from the medieval castle probably a tower house belonging to the Nugent family which stood on the site of the 17th century house.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 2 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.

Ainsworth, J. F. and MacLysaght, E. 1958 Survey of documents in private keeping. 2nd series. Nugent Papers, Analecta Hibernica 20, 126-214.