What is recorded here

Portanure house stood on a gentle slope above Lough Ree in the late 16th century, a long rectangular fortress with gable-ended chimneys that guarded a small cluster of dwellings. It vanished without a surface trace, leaving behind only a map mark and a ghost in the pasture. The house may have hidden inside a bawn or worn the shape of a gatehouse, but its walls are gone. What remains is the danger of forgetting that a fortified threshold once watched the water.

On a gentle SSE-facing slope in pasture, overlooking Lough Ree c. 500m to the SSE. A long rectangular two-storey building with gable-ended chimney stacks, typical of a late 16th/early 17th-century fortified house, is depicted on the Down Survey (1655-6) map of Rathcline barony (NLI, MS 719). On the map it is named ‘Portenure house’ and is surrounded by a small cluster of dwellings. The precise location of the house has not been identified. It may have been located within the interior of a bawn (LF025-006----) or built along its E wall - a building is shown against this wall on the 1839 edition of the OS 6-inch map. Alternatively, the latter building may have been a gatehouse. No visible surface trace of it survives. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 24 September 2012

A late 16th- or early 17th-century fortified house, it was likely built by a local gentry family for defense during a period of political and military instability in Ireland. Its design reflects the transition from traditional castles to more domestic-style fortified residences in the region.

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