Castle - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

The precise location of Gigginstown Castle has not been identified. The record of Monument and Places map for Co. Westmeath marked the castle on the site of Gigginstown Lodge now levelled which is depicted on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map. Slight remains of low banks in the fields SE of Gigginstown House appear to be no more than old field boundaries of post-1700 date associated with Gigginstown Lodge. There is no cartographic evidence to suggest that Gigginstown Lodge was constructed on the site of the medieval castle.
Gigignstown Castle is mentioned in the 1655 terrier of the Down Survey map of Castletown parish where it stated that in 'Martinstown there is a Castle (WM014-047----) in repaire and another at Giganstowne in repaire' (NLI, MS 723-4). In 1641 the lands of Gigginstown belonged to Garrett Dardis who is listed as an 'Irish papist' (ibid.). Gigginstown Castle is not depicted on the 1655 Down Survey maps and is not depicted on any edition of the OS 6-inch maps.
The present Gigginstown House was built c.1854, to designs by the renowned architect John Skipton-Mulvany (1813-1870) for Elizabeth Busby between 1853 and 1855, replacing the earlier house depicted as Gigginstown Lodge located to the SE in an area now covered in trees and bushes. This earlier house was the property of Capt. Brabazon O'Connor in 1837 (Lewis 1837, 219). He was married to Mary Dardis (nee Byrne) whose first husband was Michael Dardis, eldest son of Christiopher Dardis of Gigginstown.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 4 October 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.

Lewis, S. 1837 A topographical dictionary of Ireland, 2 vols. London. Lewis and Co.