Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Castle - unclassified
Piercetown (rathconrath By.), County Westmeath, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Piercetown (rathconrath By.)
- County
- Westmeath
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- Latest-edition OS map
- Not indicated
- SMR number
- WM017-011----
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
The precise location of Piercetown Castle has not been identified. The castle is depicted on the 1655-9 Down Survey maps of Rathconrath barony and Piercetown parish (NLI, MS 723-4). The castle is not depicted on any edition of the OS 6-inch maps. The castle appears to have been located in the general vicinity of a rigfort (WM017-010----). The location of the castle site on the RMP map was based on the Down Survey map. The scale of this map does not allow for an accurate plot for the location of this castle onto an OS 6-inch map. Without any surface remains visible the site of this castle is unlocated.
The terrier of the 1654-7 Down Survey map of Piercetowne parish recorded that 'The Improvements are on Culgany [Kilgawny WM017-037----] & Piercetowne on each a Castle' (NLI, MS 723-4). In 1641 the lands of Piercetown belonged to Edmond Fitzgerald who is listed as an 'Irish papist' (ibid.).
Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien
Date of upload: 5 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.