Castle - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

In a field to rear of an 18th/19th century walled garden associated with Wardenstown House which was described by the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage as a 'Detached five-bay two-storey (over basement to rear) country house, built c.1810 possibly incorporating the fabric of an earlier house c.1740, with modern single-storey over basement extensions to the rear (east)'(www.buildingsofireland.ie). A field annotated ‘Castle Field’ on Lanesboro estate map of 1804 suggests a castle in this area, but no such structure is depicted (NLI, MS 21 F. 47 / (034) ). No castle site depicted on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map or the revised 1913 ed. OS 25-inch map. Described in 1983 as no surface remains visible in area known as the 'Castle Field'. No cropmark of any castle site is visible today on Digital Globe aerial photography. The precise location of this castle has not been identified. The present Wardenstown House could have been built on the site of an earlier castle, however no medieval fabric has been identified in this house or in the outbuildings of the yard belonging to the house. No castle in depicted in this townland on the 1655 Down Survey map of Farbill Barony (NLI MS 723-4).

Compiled by Alison McQueen, Vera Rahilly and Caimin O’Brien.

Date of upload: 09 July 2019

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.

NLI, MS 21 F. 47 / (034) National Library of Ireland, A survey of Wardenstown and Brutonstown Little in the parish of Killucan barony of Farbill and County Westmeath part of the estate of Robert Herbert Earl of Lanesboro. 1804. Longfield Map Collection. Dublin.