Clonyn House

Clonyn House and its landscaped gardens are described in the terrier of the 1654-57 Down map of Castletown parish which recorded that the in ‘Clonyn there is the ruines of a fayre house with a fewe backroomes Wherein the Earle of West Meath dwells with a faire orchard and a garden with a grove of trees’ (NLI, MS 723-4). Clonyn House is not depicted on the Down Survey maps. This 'fayre house' was probably built on the site of or incorporated the medieval castle (WM013-014001-) belonging to the Nugent family. In 1538 an inquisition into the estate of the recently deceased Richard Nugent Baron of Delvin listed ‘Clonyn. A castle and 160a arable; worth £8’ as part of his estate (Ainsworth 1958, 126). Annotated on the 1838 ed. OS 6-inch map as Clonyn House and depicted as a ruinous structure on the revised 1913 ed. OS 25-inch map. Present remains consist of the ruins of an ivy-clad multi-period house. The core of the building consists of a late seventeenth century five bay gabled house standing two storeys high. This central house has been extended to the N and S. A square turret built on to the S side of the range bears a plaque with the Nugent crest (WM013-014002-). Throughout the ruins there are numerous pieces of sparrow-pecked dressed stone, typical of the fifteenth and sixteenth century which has been incorporated into the fabric of the ruins. To the E of the house there is a rectangular enclosure, probably a parterre on two levels & bounded by a low battlemented wall. This is not depicted on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map. Clonyn House described by the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH) as following; 'Remains of earlier five-bay two-storey house over basement house with attic level to the rear (west), built c.1680, having remains of pitched roof and stone chimneystacks, one set diagonally to roofline. Plaque with crest of Nugent Family, dated 1680, to façade. Various later extensions to house dating from the early-eighteenth century to the early-nineteenth century (early-nineteenth century additions in a Georgian Gothic-style). Extensive ranges of ruinous outbuildings to the north of the earlier house' (www.buildingsofireland.ie).