What is recorded here

Bellville holds a grass-covered earthen platform measuring fifty-three by thirty-eight metres, the buried shadow of a lime-and-stone house lost before the Down Survey mapped the land. The Flemings of Slane took Crenard perhaps during the Plantation, imposing their will on soil that already remembered older hands. You can still walk the rounded corners of that forgotten room, feeling the weight of absence beneath the turf.

The small estate of Crenard was acquired by the Flemings of Slane (ME0190933002-), perhaps during the Plantation. According to contemporary documents there was a bawn and house of lime and stone (Davies 1948a, 94). Land at Crenit (78) is indicated on the Down Survey (1656-8) barony map, but no house is represented. See this web-page accessed on 18/04/2016 http://downsurvey.tcd.ie/down-survey-maps.php#bm=Clonmoghan&c=Cavan Davies (ibid.) identified Crenit with Bellville where there is the remains of a low, subrectangular, grass-covered earthen platform (dims c. 53m N-S; 38m E-W) with apparently rounded corners, extending W from the present early 18th-century house and farm complex. (ITA Survey 1941) 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: 18 April 2016

The Bawn in Bellville was built by the Flemings of Slane, likely during the 17th-century Plantation of Ireland. It is remembered as part of the Crenard estate and as an example of early modern defensive architecture in a newly settled landscape.

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