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On NE side of Charleville. Built and designed by Roger Boyle (Lord Orrery and President of Munster) as his seat; foundation stone laid 29th May 1661 (Bernard 1993, 322-4). Not finished until c. 1680, at a total cost of about £20,000 (ibid.); regarded as one of Ireland's greatest houses of this period. No plans or illustrations of house survive; according to Craig (1982, 138), it 'occupied one side of a walled court and could be defended with 16 guns'; Smith (1750, vol. 1, 303) refers to its 'noble garden and fine park'. House burnt in 1690 and subsequently demolished (ibid.). No visible surface trace of house but some demesne features evident in vicinity of Moatville House (14929). Moatville stands at W corner of square field (L c. 120m) which is enclosed by ivy-clad stone wall (H c. 3m; Wth 0.65m); this field may have been site of house. High stone walls like these, enclosing courtyard around central house, are a feature of late-17th-century houses. In centre of NE wall of this field is very ruined opening; this may have been gateway into garden as it lines up with remains of four fish ponds (14964) in next field. The 1842 OS 6-inch map shows, extending to NE and SW from these two fields, two parallel field boundaries c. 50m apart; nothing appears to survive of SW line (L c. 350m) which ran to main street of Charleville, but much of NE line survives as earthen field fences (L c. 550m) terminating at public road on Limerick/Cork border. Area immediately SE of walled field now occupied by Golden Vale Co-operative industrial plant. Two features (CO002-060----, CO003-001001-) in this vicinity are marked as 'moat' in Old English script on OS 6-inch maps: 1936 OS 6-inch map shows one c. 100m SW of Moatville House, and 1935 OS 6-inch map (Sheet no. 3) shows the second at N corner of field containing the fish ponds (14964); nothing appears to survive of former but latter is part of open-drain system in this generally marshy area.
The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 4: North Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2000). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.
Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009
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