Settlement deserted - medieval

The National Monuments Service's description

The deserted borough of Ardnurcher is located on a ridge of elevated pasture in an area of undulating countryside about 500m north of the present village of Horseleap with good views in all directions. The settlement was located in the fields between the medieval church (WM031-098----) and the Anglo-Norman motte and bailey castle (WM031-099----). The town of Ardnurcher was defended by a stone wall (WM031-107----) traces of which still survive in the surrounding fields. The placename is a corruption of Ath an Urchair, the ford of the cast or throw (Joyce 1902, 9). The origin of the name is uncertain, although there is a tradition connecting it with the wounding of Conchobhar MacNeasa (Joyce 1871, 161). Apart from its traditional association with Conchobar MacNeasa the only evidence for activity on the site prior to the coming of the Normans is a somewhat doubtful reference to a souterrain (WM031-106----) in the castle (WM031-099----) bailey (Brownrigg 1788, 46). In the early 1170's, however, the cantred of Ardnurcher was granted to Meiler FitzHenry by Hugh de Lacy (Orpen 1892, 229). The manor was an important one and was defended from an early date. A settlement existed at Ardnurcher before the year 1200 when the Annals of Clonmacnoise recorded that ‘some of Meyler Bermingham’s people tooke the spoyle of the castle (WM031-099----) of Ardnurcher and burnt all the houses of the markett’ (Ann. Clon., 217). In 1213 the Annals recorded that ‘Cormack Mc Art O’Melaghlin tooke a great prey from the Towne of Ardnurcher, and the next morrow after tooke the spoyles of the castle of Ardnurcher, and market of the same, he tooke many other small preys and booties’ (Ann. Clon. , 226). The settlement had attained borough status by about 1235 when a burgage in Ardnurcher is mentioned in a charter of Walter de Lacy (Mac Niocaill 1977, 55). The Anglo-Norman settlers of Ardnurcher were often described in the Annals as the ‘Englishmen of Ardnurcher’ (Ann. Clon., 232). The settlement was in a frontier situation, and exposed to attacks from the native Irish such as that recorded in the Annals of Clonmacnoise for 1234 when Ardnurcher and Ballyloughloe (WM030-047----) was burned by Fedlimid O Conchobhair, King of Connacht (Ann. Clon., 234). Almost nothing is known of Ardnurcher in the Later Middle Ages but like much of the Anglo-Norman colony it seems to have passed out of Anglo-Norman control in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The castle, and probably the borough, were in Irish hands by 1422 when the sons of O Mailsechlainn attacked Ardnurcher which at the time was held by MacEochagain (Ann. Conn., 461). In 1568 Ardnurcher was granted by Queen Elizabeth to Gerald, Earl of Kildare, and this may indicate the re-establishment of some form of English control. The 1656 Down Survey of Ardnurcher parish list Callagh Geoghagen [Geoghegan] as the owner of the lands of 'Ardnorcher and Firemore' which at that time consisted of 191 acres of land (NLI MS 723-4).
According to the Urban Survey of Westmeath the borough site was located to the west of the motte (WM031-099----) and was bounded on the north-east and south-east by a defensive wall which represents the town defences (WM031-107----). It must have extended westwards at least as far as the parish church (WM031-098----) but the precise line of its western boundary is unknown (Bradley et. al. 1985, 14). The medieval settlement was protected on the north-east by the external bank of the bailey ditch. This continues northwards as far as the road. A similar bank is present south-west of the motte (WM031-099----) where the outline of at least two rectangular projecting bastions can be distinguished. This wall foundation terminates at a distance of about 160m from the motte, from which a cross bank runs to the north-west (Bradley et. al. 1985, 15-16). The faintest traces of small rectangular enclosures can be seen on Bing Maps aerial photographs taken in 2011 which may represent sub-surface remains of this medieval settlement. Today there are no surface remains visible of these earthworks in this field. Brownrigg's plan of the motte and bailey castle from 1788 shows clearly that the drawbridge also acted as a gateway into the motte and bailey castle from a roadway which crossed the stream to the SE. This roadway traversed the stream and before coming to the gateway divided into two sections, one of which leads directly into the motte and bailey castle and a second branch which turned W leading up the slope of the ridge and into the historic town of Ardnurcher (WM031-104----) from there onwards towards Ardnurcher church (WM031-098----) and graveyard. On the 1788 plan this roadway is shown running roughly SE-NW across the centre of the settlement of Ardnurcher and is annotated by Brownrigg as 'Ancient road from the Borders into the English Pale'.

See attached Bing Maps aerial photograph of the field showing the faintest traces of possible settlement earthworks in the field immediately W of the motte and bailey castle. Taken from www.bing.com/maps

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 14 August 2014

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.

Brownrigg, J. 1788 A descriptive account of the fort of Ardnorcher or Horseleap, near Kilbeggan, in the County of Westmeath, Ireland; with conjectures concerning its use, and the time of its erection. Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy 2, 43-50. Dublin. George Bonham.

Joyce, P.W. 1869 The Origin and History of Irish Names of Places. Dublin. McGlashan & Gill.

Joyce, P.W. 1902 Irish local names explained. Dublin. M.H. Gill and Son.

Bradley, J., Halpin, A., and King, H. 1985 Urban archaeological survey - county Westmeath. Unpublished report commissioned by the Office of Public Works, Dublin.

Ann. Conn. - Annála Connacht, The Annals of Connacht, 1224-1544, ed. A. Martin Freeman (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1944)

Ann. Clon. - The Annals of Clonmacnoise: being annals of Ireland from the earliest period to AD 1408, translated into English, AD 1627 by Conell Mageoghagan, ed. D. Murphy. Dublin. Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 1896.

Orpen, G.H. (ed.) 1892 (Reprint 1994) The Song of Dermot and the Earl: an Old French poem about the coming of the Normans to Ireland. Clarendon Press, Oxford.

Mac Niocaill, G. 1977 Cairt le Walter de Lacy. Galvia 11, 54-6.