Castle - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

Dysart House may have been located on the site of Dysart Castle and bawn listed in a 1609 land grant to Sir Robert Nugent of Walshestown (WM018-155----). In this year Sir Robert Nugent was granted the manor of Disert [Dysart] which included 'a castle; a hall, and a stone bawn (WM025-169001-), with a lough, a stable, two barns, a haggard, 40 messuages, 50 gardens, and a fish pond (WM025-169002-) in Disert' (Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I, 196). Numerous earthworks are visible on Digital Globe aerial photographs taken November 2011 in the area where the ruins of Dysart House are shown on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map and in the fields to the E of Dysart church (WM025-110002-) and graveyard (WM025-110004-). These earthworks may form part of the castle and bawn mentioned above in the 1609 land grant.
This castle site may have been first built as the manorial castle of the Anglo-Norman manor of Dysart which Hugh de Lacy kept in his possession when granting the barony of Magheradernon to William le Petit in the late 12th century (Orpen 1920, 167). In this grant Hugh de Lacy retained possession of the 'lake and vill of Dysart' (ibid.). This lake may be the pond (WM025-169002-) located 240m to the W of Dysart House. In the early 13th century the lands of Dysart were held of Walter de Lacy by William Pipard, son of Ralph Pipard (ibid., 168). In 1301 Ralph Pipard sold the lands of Dysart Manor to King Edward I. In 1302-03 an inquisition into the extent of the Manor of 'Dyssard' was held at Dysart. The jurors of the inquisition recorded that Ralph Pippard, lord of Dysart Manor possessed at Dysart 'a small, weak, and ruined fort, which together the with the messuage is worth nothing a year' (Cal. doc. Ire., 65). The precise location of this 'ruined fort' has not been identified but it may have been located in the field to the E of Dysart church (WM025-110002-) and graveyard (WM025-110004-). This Anglo-Norman 'fort' may have taken the form of a ringwork rather than a mote & bailey castle. There is no evidence for any motte like earthwork in the fields surrounding Dysart church and graveyard. A group of three sub-triangular-shaped earthworks (WM025-112-/113-/114-) and a field system (WM025-111001-/111002-) in the field 420m to the S of Dysart church and graveyard could be related to the Anglo-Norman manor of Dysart.

Compiled and revised by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of revised upload: 14 November 2017

References

Orpen, H. G. 1921 The Earldom of Ulster: Part V – Inquisition touching Ratoath, in Co. Meath. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 51, 68-76.

Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I - Irish patent rolls of James I: facsimile of the Irish record commissioners' calendar prepared prior to 1830, with foreword by M.C. Griffith (Irish Manuscripts Commission, Dublin, 1966)

Cal. doc. Ire. - Calendar of documents relating to Ireland 1171-1307, ed. H.S. Sweetman (5 vols., London, 1875-86).