What is recorded here

Hamond's castle vanished before it was ever drawn, leaving only a name trapped inside a king's grant and a ghost inside a town that kept rebuilding itself. Mullingar wore its castles like skin, shedding them to make room for better houses while pretending they had never existed. The absence is the shape of the castle now: a hole large enough to walk through, marked only by the certainty that something stood there and was removed.

In 1612 a land grant of the 'entire manor of Mollingar' from King James I to Thomas Pettyt [Petit] of Irishtowne mentioned the existence of 'Hamond's castle' (Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I , 233). The precise location of this castle within the historic town of Mullingar has not been identified (Andrews and Davies 1992, 10). In 1682 Sir Henry Piers recorded that in the town of Mullingar (WM019-089----) there were, ‘ancient buildings here [that] were old fashionable castles (WM019-089001-; WM019-089008-; WM019-089010-; WM019-089029-; WM019-089030-; WM019-089032-), some of which remain yet, and some are demolished, and better or at least more commodious houses are built in their room’ (Vallancey 1786, 78). Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 30 June 2014

Thomas Pettyt (Petit) received a land grant in 1612 that included reference to 'Hamond's castle' in the manor of Mullingar, indicating its existence and possible significance in early 17th-century land holdings. The castle is remembered primarily through this historical document, which reflects the redistribution of Irish land under James I.

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