Indicated

On a slight rise of flat poorly drained grassland at the foothills of the Slieveardagh hills with a deer park (TS048-047----) 300m to the E. The Down Survey map (1655-6) indicates a castle and two dwellings in area marked on OS 6-inch map. According to the Civil Survey (1654-6) in 1640 Pierce Cantwell was listed as the proprietor of Poyntstown and on his lands are described 'a little castle wanting repaire & one thatched house' (Simington 1931, vol. 1, 120). In the Kilcooley papers John Bird is listed as the main tenant of Poynstown in 1663 and part of his tenancy agreement was to demolish the castle and to build within two years a house of stone and lime with a slate roof, thirty feet [9.1m] long and to plant an orchard and garden (Neely 1983, 33). Ruins of a 19th-century farmhouse and outhouses are located where the castle may have been located. There is evidence of some reuse of medieval stonework in the form of a punch dressed stone incorporated into the farmyard wall of the 19th-century farmyard. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 26 August 2011

Built during the 17th century, likely by an English settler or local landowner following the Confederate Wars, Poyntstown Castle is remembered for its association with early post-Tudor land settlement patterns in Ireland and its depiction on the Down Survey, one of the earliest detailed land maps of the country.