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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Castle - tower house

Houseland, County Wexford, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Castle - tower house, Houseland, County Wexford, with a pin at the register's coordinates
Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915), covering this location. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland. The pin is ours, placed from the register's coordinates.

The record

Townland
Houseland
County
Wexford
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Houseland Castle (in ruins)
Latest-edition OS map
Houseland Castle (in Ruins)
Coordinates
52.15813, -6.88952
SMR number
WX049-013----

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

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

4 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1790 map "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1790 · Composite: Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1869 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1882 · Ireland (southern half). (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (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

Located on a slight S-facing slope. References to Houseland, then called Northtown as the most northerly townland in Hook parish, date from 1471 when Andrew FitzRedmond held a messuage or house and 80 acres there (Hore 1900-11, vol. 4, 347-8). Hook parish was part of the Templar, and after 1312 the Hospitaller, manor of Kilcloggan. At the Suppression in 1541 Henry Keating possessed 30 acres and the castle at Hounsland (ibid. 285). By 1640 Houseland had become the property of Nicholas Loftus (ibid 350).
The castle is described as a tower of four storeys with a vaulted ground floor and a newel stairs (Jeffrey 1979, 151-2). Today, the foundation course of a rectangular structure (ext. dims 5.95m E-W; 5.77m N-S) with an entrance (Wth 0.62m), or perhaps the outlet of a garderobe chute, towards the W end of the N wall and a rubble cairn (diam. 15m; H 1-1.6m) are the only visible remains at ground level.

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: 4 February 2014

References

Jeffrey, W.H. 1979 The castles of County Wexford. Typescript prepared by the Old Wexford Society, Ed. E. Culleton.

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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