What is recorded here

Rathconrath Castle stood as a tower house beside a medieval routeway in County Westmeath, marked on a 1657 survey and later reduced to a rectangular earthwork still visible from above. It belonged to Thomas Fitzgerald, an Irish papist, when the land was measured and named. The castle no longer has walls people can touch, but its shadow remains in the field, waiting to be remembered.

Rathconrath Castle was possibly located in the field to the E of the motte (WM018-093----) as depicted on the 1657 Down Survey map of Rathconrath parish where it is shown standing on lands belonging to Thomas Fitzgerald who is listed as an 'Irish papist' (NLI, MS 723-4). On the Down Survey map the castle is depicted as a tower house type structure standing in a triangular-shaped field beside a medieval routeway. A rectangular-shaped earthwork depicted on an estate map of Rathconrath dating from 1776 which roughly corresponds with the location of the medieval stone castle of Rathconrath (NLI, MS 21 F. 48 (026) ). The cropmark of this rectangular-shaped earthwork is visible today on Digital Globe aerial photograph. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 5 October 2016

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