Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a broad hill, in pasture, with good views in all directions. Annotated ‘Ardnagragh Old Castle’ on the 1837 OS Fair Plan map. Depicted on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map as a U-shaped building. In 1611 an inquisition into the possessions of Robert Dillon of Cannorstown Castle (WM015-019----) listed Ardnagragh Castle as part of his estate (Cal. inq. post mortem, 5 Jac. I). Castle described in the Ordnance Survey field name books as 'This old castle stands NE by SW and is 60 links [12m] long and 30 links [6m] broad. it is now in ruins'. Castle depicted on the Down Survey Drumraney parish map as a tower house type structure with later two storey high house built onto one side of the castle (NLI, MS 723-4). On this map the castle is shown standing on a hillock on lands belonging to Richard Dillon (ibid.). The cartographic representation closely resembles the OS 6-inch map designation which suggests that this was a multi-period building.
Castle described in 1983 as the ruins of a rectangular-shaped building defined by the remains of the E wall, a short return of the S wall and some mounds of collapsed material. The foundations of the E wall (approx. L 20m N-S) survive along with a short return of the S wall (approx. L 6m; H 2-3m). Immediately to S there is a large irregular-shaped mound of stone. This feature extends to W of the SE corner and is clearly defined along the S edge, probably representing collapse from the former S wall. The structure is crudely built of rubble stone and there are no surviving features of architectural interest. A well-defined L-shaped trench (dims. c. 3.5m N-S; 2m E-W; D 0.5m) is located to W of the upstanding masonry. It does not appear to be directly connected with the castle and may be a relatively modern feature. The area of the castle is traversed by some modern field fences running N-S and E-W, which are not indicated on Ordnance Survey maps.

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

Date of upload: 24 July 2019

References

Cal. inq. post mortem - Calendar of inquisitions post mortem (18 vols., London, 1904-87)

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.