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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Castle - tower house

Brownswood, County Wexford, Ireland

The record

Townland
Brownswood
County
Wexford
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Black Castle (in ruins)
Latest-edition OS map
Brownswood Castle (in Ruins)
Coordinates
52.46313, -6.56074
SMR number
WX026-022----

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

University Library, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1811 "Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

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This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on the E bank of the N-S River Slaney with the stream c. 20m to the W. It is thought to have been built by the Brownes of Mulrankin (WX047 031----) and it is described as 'in ruins' and the property of William Browne in 1641, together with 500 acres in Brownswood and Crefoge (Simington 1953, 72).
The remains consist of parts of the E (L 12.1m; T 2.35m) and S (L 6.5m) walls surviving to the second storey. The vaulted ground floor has a lintelled alcove for three gun-loops at the SE angle and a damaged embrasure in the E wall has two gun-loops. At the first floor there is a destroyed light in the E wall and an oubliette is contained in the masonry of the vault at the SE angle with a single gun-loop in the wall above. Two corbels to support the ceiling of the first floor survive in the E wall, and there are fragments of window embrasures at the second floor in the E and S walls.

See the attached section from the Down Survey (1656-8) parish map (N at right) reproduced courtesy of the National Library of Ireland (Ms 725)

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Wexford' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1996). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload/revision: 11 July 2012

Simington, R.C. (ed.) 1953 The Civil survey, AD 1654-1656. Vol. IX: county of Wexford. Dublin. Irish Manuscripts Commission.

Nearby in the register

Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.

Sites and Monuments Record data: National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Record text is reproduced unchanged. National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland · CC BY 4.0
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