Bawn

The National Monuments Service's description

Ballintogher Castle (WM024-031----) stands in W quadrant of bawn on flat poorly drained land with good views in all directions. Croughal church (WM025-005001-) and graveyard (WM025-005006-) lies 500m to SE. Annotated as ‘Boleyvillish Castle in ruins’, on the 1838 ed. O 6-inch map where the castle is shown standing beside several buildings accessed by a road to NE. On this map this small cluster of dwellings are annotated with the placename ‘Boleyvillish’. On the 1838 map the castle is depicted as a long rectangular structure aligned NW-SE with a second L-shaped building to NE and a third building located a few metres to NW. All of these structures were accessed by a roadway running NE towards the public road.

The bawn consists of a square-shaped earthwork (approx. dims 75m NW-SE x 73 NE-SW) defined by a scarp and wide water-filled moat with causewayed entrance at SE. The Fitzgerrald castle (WM024-031----) stands in the W quadrant of the bawn. It is not clear if this earthwork is contemporaneous with the castle or with the post-1700 building located to the W and NW which are depicted on the 1838 ed. OS 6-inch map. The interior of the bawn appears to be sub-divided into quadrants which may suggest the presence of a garden inside the bawn, cultivation ridges running E-S are visible in E quadrant of bawn.
This monument was described in 1978 as ‘a large sub-rectangular earthwork outlined by a stream on the NE side & by remains of a wide low bank & a wide fosse on the NE & SE sides. There is a narrow causeway entrance on the SE side. There is a second entrance, probably later, near the western end of the NW side. A number of low banks & shallow fosses divide the interior of the earthwork. This monument is in flat pasture land, very poorly drained & rushy to the north & east, with very gently rising ground, fairly well drained to the south & west‘ (SMR File 16/09/1978).
A second report from the same year describes the monument as ‘The castle (WM024-031----) is set in the remains of a rectangular ditched enclosure. There is a 19thc. house (ruined) to the NW of the castle. The ruin seems to date to the 16th or 17th c. ‘ (SMR File 02/05/1978).

Compiled and revised by: Caimin O’Brien

Date of revised upload: 11 December 2017