Castle (site of) — Ballymount Great

The surviving architectural remains of the manor form a roughly rectangular courtyard with out-buildings attached to and extending E and W of the original 17th century manor house. The N gable wall and SW corner is all that survives of the manor house. It is built of lightly bonded masonry with block and dot decoration on the quoins indicating a 17th century date. The N wall rises to two storeys with splayed embrasure on the ground floor and a fireplace on first floor (est. dims. c. L 16m, Wth 8.20m). A rectangular vaulted chamber is attached to the N end (int. dims. L 9.50m, Wth 3.70m). Window in N wall (Healy 1977, 1-5; St John Joyce 1912, 217-219; Stout 1982, 217, Stout 1998, 145-154). Further excavations in 1997 uncovered the eastern section of a substantial stone building, of which a small section (west) survives above ground in derelict form. The eastern gable end of the structure had been removed by the sewer-pipe trench (at 62.09m OD). Excavation directly east of the standing section revealed sub-surface remains of the central portion of the structure, including foundation walls, a partition wall, internal post-holes and a series of internal cobbled floors and drainage features. A mixture of medieval and post-medieval finds were recovered from the cobbled floors and associated wall foundations. The remains of a late outhouse structure were recorded and a section of stone wall was uncovered within the cobbled surface 1.5m south of the outhouse. This wall survives to a length of 2.6m, and is on average 0.74m wide and 0.3m high (63.29m OD). Several walls of 17th century date were uncovered within the excavated area. These included the south-west portion of the manor house, and the north wall of the manor house which forms the south wall of the barrel-vaulted building (McConway 1998, 22-23). Compiled by Geraldine Stout