What is recorded here

Ballynahown held a working castle, broad bawn and milling water in 1656, drawing life to west County Westmeath before the names faded from local memory. Catherine Malone, called Pettit, stood beside those lands in 1641, perhaps keeping hearth, herds and mill stones running through a household the survey never entered. The bawn may have ringed kitchens, byres and rooms where children learned the smell of toasted barley; if so, it gave the estate more than a boundary, giving it a heartbeat.

The 1656 Down Survey map of Kilcleagh Parish depicts a ‘Castle (WM035-010----) in repaire & Towne’ in ‘Ballenihone/Killemoyllchan’ which roughly corresponds with the present demesne lands of Ballynahown Court (NLI MS 723-4). On this map a castle and bawn are depicted in the SW quadrant of Ballynahown townland which does not correspond with the area of woodland to the E of Ballynahown Court. A ‘mill (WM035-011002-) in repair’ is also shown standing along a mill race located in close proximity to the castle and bawn. The terrier of the Down Survey map of Killcleagh parish states that in Ballynahown there was ‘a Castle and a large Bawne in repaire with a good Mill’ (NLI MS 723-4). In 1641 the lands of ‘Ballenihone Killemoyllchan’ amounting to 470 acres of land were in the possession of Catherin[e] Malone al[ia]s Pettit who was listed as an ‘Irish Papist’. The lands of Ballynahown were described in the Down Survey as consisting of a mixture of pasture, meadow, arable and rocky land. The precise location of the castle, bawn, mill and mill race has not been identified within the townland of Ballynahown. Compiled by: Caimin O’Brien Date of upload: 08 August 2014

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.