Proudfootstown Castle — Report the wrong picture

What is recorded here

No visible trace remains of the castle, but a circular base about three and a half metres across and one and a half metres high still stands where a tower once rose. The Proudfoot name appears in Dowth manor in 1253, and Richard Proudfoot disputed boundaries with Mellifont abbey in 1461, the period when the castle may have been built. By 1640 Lord Moore held the castle, a stone house, an orchard and a corn mill beside the lands shared with Sir John Netterville. What is left is a small disc of stone in a farm complex, waiting to be imagined as a stair, a guard chamber or the foot of a tower that once looked out over the valley.

Alan Prutfot was a tenant of Dowth manor in 1253 and the boundaries of the townland were defined in the course of a dispute between Richard Proudfoot and the abbot of Mellifont in 1461, around which time the castle may have been built (Stout 2007, 348-9). A castle at Proudfootstown (32) in Dowth parish and Slane barony is depicted on the Down Survey (1656-8) barony map (http://downsurvey.tcd.ie/). According to the Civil Survey (1654-6) Sir John Netterville of Dowth and Lord Charles Moore of Mellifont jointly owned 130 acres there in 1640 but ‘a castle, a stone house, an orchard and a corn mill’ belonged to Lord Moore (Simington 1940, 351). The castle is depicted as in a farm complex on the 1836 ed. of the OS 6-inch map and as a small shell (dims c. 4m NE-SW; c. 3m NW-SE), probably a projecting stairs or garderobe tower on the 1908 ed. It is described (Balfour 1890) as the base of circular tower (diam. c. 3.5m, H c. 1.8m). No visible trace survives. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Meath' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1987). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of revision: 9 June 2016

Alan Prutfot was a tenant of Dowth manor in 1253, and the castle may have been built or held by the Proudfoot family in the 15th century, around the time of a boundary dispute with the abbot of Mellifont in 1461. It is remembered for its connection to local land disputes and the Proudfoot family's presence in the region during the late medieval period.

This remains an important historical record, but the official description says the monument is no longer visible or has been destroyed. The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.