Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

Bracklin House may have been built on the site of the medieval castle of Bracklin belonging to the Nugent family, however there is no physical evidence to support this suggestion. The present Bracklin House is often referred to as 'Bracklyn Castle' (Burke 1833 629). This name suggests that the present house was built on or close to the site of the medieval castle. Bracklyn Castle was built as a residence for the Nugent family of Moyrath who were descended from William, 1st baron of Delvin (Brewer 1825-6, 227). In 1559-60 the Crown recorded a 'livery to Edward, son and heir of Thomas Nugent, late of [Brack]lyne' (Nicholls 1994, 22).
The castle and lands passed from the Nugent's into the possession of the Pakenham family who sold the castle and estate to the Featherston family (ibid.). A castle is depicted on the Down Survey map of Killulagh parish, and the terrier recorded that, ‘In Bracklyne there is a castle in repaire with an orchard & garden & some ash trees’ (NLI MS 723-4). On this map the castle stood on lands belonging in 1641 to Edward Nugent who is listed as an 'Irish Papist'. No trace of a castle or any medieval fabric visible in the present Bracklin House.
The National Inventory of Architectural Heritage described the present Bracklin House as a; 'Detached five-bay two-storey over basement neoclassical country house, built c.1790, with projecting single-bay Doric porch to the centre of entrance front (west), c.1855, and single-storey bow-ended wings to either end (north and south), built c.1910. House bounded to front by low ashlar limestone plinth wall. Set back from road in extensive landscaped grounds to the south of Delvin with gate lodge (15401322) to west, mausoleum to north (15401406) and an extensive complex of outbuildings to rear (east) and to south side, many contemporary with the house. Three-storey extension to rear of house, c.1855. Bracklyn House was built by a branch of the Fetherston-Haugh Family in the late eighteenth-century on land acquired from the Pakenham Family of Tullynally Castle, Castlepollard. The present house occupies the site of a fifteenth century tower house. It is quite likely that some of the fabric of this earlier structure may have been used in the construction of the main house or, more likely, in the construction of the complex of outbuildings to the rear' (www.buildingsofireland.ie).

Compiled by: Frank Coyne and Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 27 August 2018

References

Burke, J. 1833 A genealogical and heraldic history of the commoners of Great Britain and Ireland. Published for Henry Colburn by R. Bentley, New Burlington Street. London.

Nicholls, K.W. (ed.) 1994 The Irish fiants of the Tudor sovereigns during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Philip & Mary, and Elizabeth I, 4 vols. Dublin. Éamonn de Búrca for Edmund Burke Publisher.

Brewer, J.N. 1825-6 The beauties of Ireland: being the original delineations, topographical, historical and biographical of each county, 2 vols. London. Sherwood, Jones and Co.

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.