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Castle (in ruins) — Ballynahinch

Castle — tower house

Why this matters

Dunmoon (Ballynahinch) Castle was built in the 17th century, likely by a local landholding family, and is remembered for its distinctive stone-walled structure and historical presence in the region. Its remains provide insight into early modern defensive architecture in rural Ireland.

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Overview

Castle (in ruins) — Ballynahinch is recorded as Castle — tower house in Limerick. In 1840 the Ordnance Survey described Dunmoon [Ballynahinch] Castle as follows ‘This castle measures forty two feet [12.8m] by twenty two and a half feet [6.85m] inside the walls.

Who built and held it

The saved account records: The 1654-56 Civil Survey of Limerick recorded that Gibbon fitz Gibbon of Doonmoone, an Irish Papist was in 1640 the owner of Doonmoone, ‘whereon stands a Castle [LI048-020----], Bawne [LI048-020001-] & a Mill’ [LI048-125----] along with ‘three tatch houses, two whereof have two stone Chymnies and about 22 smale Cabyns’ (Simington 1938, 234).

Attack, change and use

The saved account records: In 1840 the Ordnance Survey described Dunmoon [Ballynahinch] Castle as follows

What survives

The saved account records: The main rooms are not vaulted and there are remains of mullion-and-transom windows with hoodmoulds and also gables set on the outer walls.

Why it mattered

Castle (in ruins) — Ballynahinch matters because the source ties castle — tower house to this exact landscape and preserves evidence that a bare map name loses. The saved account adds: The only gunloop commands the entrance, later blocked up and replaced by another entrance (with its own murder-hole) on the north side.

History checked 15 August 2026 against the named sources below.

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