Mornin Castle (in Ruins)

On rock outcrop with extensive views in all directions. According to local tradition, this is an O'Farrell castle that was built around 1400. In 1620/1 Roger Farrall received a land grant from the commission for the Plantation of Longford, which included ‘the castle, town and lands of Mornyn, with a water-mill' (LF023-125----) (Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I, 490-91). This tower house (ext. dims. 11.15m E–W; 10.7m N–S; wall T 2.2m) is four storeys high and is constructed of roughly coursed limestone rubble. A slight base-batter is evident on the W wall. The punch dressing on the quoin stones, which are visible on the NE angle, suggests that it may have been built in the 16th century. The doorway was located in the centre of the now-collapsed S wall. It gave access to a lobby area, protected by a guard chamber in the SE angle, and the spiral stairs in the SW angle. The lobby leads to the main ground-floor chamber (int. dims. 5.1m N–S; 4.8m E–W), which is only partially visible as the interior is full of debris from the collapsed wall. Originally there appears to have been a single-light window in the centre of the W, N and E walls. There was a wooden floor over this chamber with a barrel vault over the first floor. An intramural passage at first-floor level, commencing in the NW angle, probably leads to a garderobe chamber as its exit chute is evident on the external face of the N wall. A single-light ogee-headed window, centrally located in this wall, was blocked up when a fireplace was subsequently inserted. Another fireplace is evident in this wall on the second floor. They appear to date from the occupation of the castle possibly in the 17th/18th centuries. Lime plaster is well preserved on the inner faces of the window embrasures at ground- and first-floor levels. Traces of wicker-centring are visible on the underside of the arches of the window embrasures at first-floor level. With the exception of a number of simple, rectangular opes, most of the windows in the E and W walls have been broken out. Wall-footings extending E from the NE angle of the tower house may be the remains of a later two-storey house (LF023-009002-) or possibly the wall-footings of a bawn wall. (ITA Survey 1944; English 1971, 154; Moore 2007, No. 23) Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 6 June 2012

Mornin Castle was built around 1400 by the O'Farrell family, a prominent Gaelic Irish clan in the region. It is remembered as a strategic defensive site, offering extensive views, and later became associated with the 1620 land grant to Roger Farrall under the Plantation of Ulster.