What is recorded here

Adam O'More built Ballyadams for Henry VII, but Silken Thomas and his allies took it before John Bowen received it in 1546. The rectangular limestone house still stands beside its tower, while memory fills the rooms where soldiers, tenants and strangers may have passed.

Marked on the Down Survey and on the 1563 map of Laois and Offaly. In gently undulating countryside in arable land. Constructed in the reign of Henry VII by Adam O'More. It was taken by the Geraldines in the rebellion of Silken Thomas. In 1546 the Lord Justice with the Earl of Desmond came with their armies to Laois. Ballyadams was given to John Bowen (O'Byrne, D 1856, 74; Comerford 1886, 125-6). Large rectangular seventeenth-century three-storey house (ext. dims. 19.5m N-S; 11.42m E-W), built of roughly coursed limestone, attached to E side of tower house (LA019-028001-). Parts of the house are possibly contemporary with the tower house, while others are definitely of a later period. Features include splayed opes, rectangular windows in N wall and possible fireplaces in N and S walls. The only access to the various floor of the house appears to have been from the NW tower of the tower house. Possible evidence of bawn wall (LA019-028003-) at SE. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Laois' (Dublin Stationery Office, 1995) compiled by P. David Sweetman, Olive Alcock and Bernie Moran. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 17 December 2007

Ballyadams Castle was built by Adam O'More during the reign of Henry VII (1485–1509) and was later captured by the Geraldines during a rebellion. It is remembered for its historical association with the O'More family and the political conflicts of late 15th-century Ireland.

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