What is recorded here

Bawnboy is the last visible fragment of the Corrasmongan estate, a two-thousand-acre grant given to the Grimes brothers during the Plantation. William Grimes made it his Cavan centre after his father died in 1624, but human ambition rarely resists time. The sturdy bawn wall has vanished, leaving only a featureless D-shaped tower and a modern building attached to its remains. What is left is not a grand castle but a boundary marker, proving that even powerful men must share their land with forgetting.

Corrasmongan was an estate of two portions, each consisting of 1000 acres, granted to Sir Richard and George Grimes in the Plantation. They died in 1626 and 1624 respectively and were succeeded by their sons, Thomas and William, the latter taking over the Cavan portions of an estate that included land in Co. Laois, and he made Bawnboy the centre for Cavan (Davies 1948a, 121). All that survives are the remains of a featureless D-shaped or open-backed tower (int. diam. 5m N-S) built of uncoursed rubble masonry with modern building attached that may be the NW angle of a bawn. (Wilsdon 2010, 182-4) The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cavan' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1995). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of revision: 13 April, 2016

Bawn in Bawnboy was held by the Grimes family, who received the Corrasmongan estate in the Plantation period, with Sir Richard and George Grimes granted the land in the early 17th century. The estate and castle are remembered as part of the English colonial settlement efforts in Ireland during the post- Nine Years' War plantation schemes.

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