House - fortified house

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on the summit of a ridge, in undulating pasture, with good views in all directions.
Depicted on the 1655 Down Survey map of Newtown parish as a castellated house with gable ended chimneystacks and a lower house extending from one side which stood in 1640 on lands belonging to Thomas Geoghegan who is listed as an 'Irish papist' (NLI, MS 723-4). The terrier of this parish map described the castle as a 'handsome House at Cominstowne' (ibid.). Thomas Geoghegan of Cominstown was listed in 1653-4 as one of the people transplanted from Co. Westmeath (O'Hart 1884, 352). In 1837 the Ordnance Survey Letters recorded that 'there is an old Castle in ruins, of which, I could obtain no information as to its erection, or period of its erection' (OSL, Vol. 2, 32). Cumminstown Castle depicted on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map and on the revised 1910 ed. OS 25-inch map as a rectangular-shaped building orientated NE-SW with building to NNE and SSW. Levelled castle described in 1973 as no surface remains visible, a modern house now stands on the site. Castle is not visible today on Digital Globe aerial photography.

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

Date of upload: 17 December 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.

O'Hart, J. 1884 The Irish and Anglo-Irish landed gentry. Dublin. M.H. Gill and Son.

OSL - Ordnance Survey Letters. Letters written by members of the Ordnance Survey's 'Topographical Department' (T. O'Conor, A. O'Curry, E. Curry, J. O'Donovan and P. O'Keeffe) sent to headquarters from the field (1834-41). MSS in Royal Irish Academy.