Castle - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a W-facing slope, in a farmyard associated with Killininneen House that was built c. 1850 possibly incorporating fabric from the medieval castle (www.buildingsofireland.ie; Reg. No. 15402306). Tower house type structure depicted standing on the W side of 'The Highway from Athlone to Dublin' on the Down Survey map of Drumraney parish (NLI MS 723-4). On this map Walterstown Castle (WM023-055----) is shown standing N of the same roadway to the W of Killininneen Castle (ibid.). On the Down Survey map the castle is shown standing on the lands of John Dillon of 'Killenenine'. Depicted on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map as a T-shaped structure building annotated 'Killininneen Castle'. The Ordnance Survey Namebook for this site recorded the following; 'This old castle is about 100 links [20m] long and 40 [8m] wide. It is now in ruins' (OSNB 15, 27). On the revised 1913 ed. OS 25-inch map this building depicted as being replaced by an irregular-shaped structure on a larger footprint, annotated ‘Killininneen House on site of Killininneen Castle’. Castle site described in 1981 as no surface remains visible of the medieval castle of Killininneen. Some of the farm buildings may have been built using stone from the castle, however there is no cut stone visible. According to local information the existing footprint of Killininneen House and outbuildings were built on the site of ‘an old castle’.

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

Date of upload: 25 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.

OSNB - Ordnance Survey Name Books. Pro-forma books arranged by Civil Parish for recording townland and other name-forms and compiled in the course of the OS 6-inch survey 1824-1841. The name books also include minor names and incidental references to antiquities. National Archives of Ireland.