What is recorded here

Clonmackenbeg Castle vanished before human memory, leaving only a battlemented ghost on a 17th-century map and a house that may have grown in its absence. The angle towers rise above the central block in ink, not stone, suggesting the ground itself forgot the building. Whatever lived there stopped casting a shadow, joining the many names that sound like places but refuse to point at anything.

The precise location of Clonmackenbeg Castle has not been identified. A large castellated house-like structure is depicted in the townland of 'Clonemakinbeg' on the 17th century Down Survey map of the Barony of North Liberties (Hib. Reg.; Westropp 1906-7, 82). On this map the castle is depicted as a battlemented central block flanked on either side by an angle tower which rises above the central block. The Down Survey map shows a second castle (LI005-047----) is shown standing in the adjoining townland to the SW in Clomackenbeg which now forms part of Clonmacken townland. The RMP map for Co. Limerick identified Clareview House [ITM 554912/657262] as the possible site of the castle. No surface remains visible of any castle at this location and no supporting cartographic evidence to suggest that this was the precise location of Clonmackenbeg Castle. See attached 1657 Down Survey barony map of North Liberties (Hib. Reg.) showing Clonmacken Beg Castle Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 09 January 2020

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