Bawn in Dysart (moyashel & Magheradernon By.)

Depicted as a small rectangular structure on the W shore of Lough Ennell and annotated as a 'Ruin' on the 1837 Ordnance Survey Plan. It has been suggested that this building may have been the remains of Kilcowle [Kilcooley] Castle and bawn listed in a 1609 land grant to Sir Robert Nugent of Walshestown. In this year Sir Robert Nugent was granted 'a castle (WM025-117----), a bawn, a large orchard or croft, 20 messuages; 20 gardens, a watermill (WM025-117002-), 4 carucates of free land, containing by estimation of the great measure in the said manor and the town of Kilcowle, parcels of the demesne, 480a arable, 100a meadow, 200a pasture, furze, and bush, 40a wood, 40a marsh, 40a bog, 50a moor, the great lough called Loughenia otherwise Loughenill [Lough Ennell], with the fishing thereof, as far as it mears with the lands of Disert [Dysart] and Kilcowle ; also the three islands therein called the great island [Dysart Island], 2a, Robbins island ½a, and Crowyence [Croincha], 1a – the river, and the fishing thereof, running upon and near the said manor of Disert and Kilcowle in Tolchane-Even' (Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I, 196). Numerous earthworks are visible on Digital Globe aerial photographs in the area where the ruin is indicated on the OS Fair Plan Map. These earthworks may form part of the bawn and orchard described above in the 1609 land grant. Kilcooley House stands 470m to the W, Dysart Island is 750m to the E and Croincha Island (WM025-150---) lies 720m to the S. Compiled and revised by: Caimin O'Brien Date of revised upload: 10 November 2017

Bawn in Dysart was likely built by a local Gaelic family in the early modern period, possibly as a defensive structure or farmstead. It is remembered as a potential remnant of the historical Kilcowle estate, associated with early Christian and medieval sites in the area.