Bawn in Boolyshea

On a S-facing slope c. 50m N of the E-W flowing Stony Stream, in a marshy, gorse-covered terrain. There are good views from WNW-SW, elsewhere the view is limited by a rise of ground. A tower house (KK018-025001-) is centrally placed within a square bawn. The castle, but not the bawn, is indicated on the Down Survey (1655-6) barony map of ‘Cranagh’ and on the parish map of both Ballicallan and Canice (Hibernia Regnum, courtesy of Trinity College Dublin). In the terrier accompanying the Canice parish map, the proprietor in 1640 in listed as Robert Shea, Irish Papist (ibid.). The bawn (dims. c. 70m) was identified as a cropmark on satellite imagery (Google Earth, 27 January 2019), with a circular cropmark projecting out at the SE angle indicating a corner turret. See attached: KK018-025002-_01 satellite imagery of tower house within bawn (Google Earth, 27 January 2019) Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 29 June 2020

A tower house at Bawn in Boolyshea was likely built in the late medieval period, though specific builders or dates are not recorded. It is remembered as a defensive structure typical of the region's historical landscape.