Castle in Ballymore

On a rise of ground with good views in all directions, now located in farmyard of 19th century house, Ballymore church (TS052-036----) located 700m to the SSE. In the Civil Survey (1654-6) Edmond Magrath was listed as proprietor of the lands in 1640 and the castle was leased by him to Greenvil and Dorothy Halls in 1638 and in 1653 was leased to Anthony Shercliffe of Cregg in County Cork (Simington 1934 vol. 2, 94-5). It is described as 'one small Pyle or Castle in good repaire with two thatcht houses and tenn Cabbyns' (Ibid.). These lands were described as the ancient inheritance of Redmond Magrath of Thurlesbegg (ibid.). The surviving remains are a single-storey rectangular structure (ext. wall L 14.5m SE wall; 12.5m SW wall; wall T 2.5m) built of roughly coursed limestone rubble with hammer dressed alternating quoin stones and high impressive base-batter (H 4.5m). Only the SE wall survives up to first floor level (H 4.5m) and the S angle is the only angle which survives with partial remains of the SW wall ( H 2.8m), elsewhere there is no evidence of the other two walls. A corrugated shed has been constructed on top of the SE and SW walls of the castle and the interior has been lowered (D 2m) when the shed was used as as silage pit. There is a flat-headed window at ground-floor level in the centre of the SE wall and fragmentary remains of a window at first-floor level in the SE wall off centre to S. Late medieval punch-dressed stonework visible in the fabric of the 19th-century outhouse located 5m from E angle of castle. This outhouse has been built with the fabric of castle and this dressed stonework displays tooling of 16th-century appearance. The high base-batter and the thickness of the wall suggests an early medieval date for the castle, however, the hammer-dressed quoinstones suggests a date of 15th/16th century date and the punch-dressed stones are of 16th-century date.