Site of Castle Coote — Ash Hill

Site of Castle Coote depicted on the demesne lands of Ash Hill [Knockash] Towers located 255m to SW. On this map the castle site is depicted as a rectangular shaped field or walled area with small rectangular shaped building in NW corner. On the 1897 ed. OSi 25-inch map the rectangular shaped field has been partially levelled and only the a section of the N and E sides of this are survive as an L-shaped earthwork. On this map a 'Draw Well' is depicted standing inside the earthwork c. 40m to NW of castle site. Westropp (1906/7, 191) recorded the following details about the site of Castle Coote; 'Castle Coote. Site marked near Ashill Towers'. According to Ireland (1983, 40), 'the square foundations marked site of Castle Coote is clearly the remnants of Chidley Coote's 18th century house'. Nearby Ash Hill Towers was described by the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage [NIAH] as a 'Detached six-bay three-storey country house, built in 1781, with substantial additions dating to the 1830s. An impressive country house originally built for Eyre Evans (the entrance carries the Evans family motto), and extensively Gothicised to the rear to the designs prepared by Charles Frederick Anderson. Part of this scheme was the addition of Gothic Revival towers which were added in 1831 and were subsequently removed' (www.buildingsofireland.ie); NIAH Reg. No. 2183051). According to the present owners of Ash Hill, Castle Coote was the birthplace of Lieutenant General Sir Eyre Coote, conqueror of India and the castle was demolished in the later half of the eighteenth century. The present house, which overlooks this courtyard, was built by Chidley Coote in 1781. The first recorded ownership of Ash Hill was in 1667 when Chidley Coote acquired the property from Catherine Bligh. It is probable that he had a son who was also Chidley Coote. In 1726, Lieutenant General Eyre Coote (son of Chidley Coote--a clergyman and owner of Castle Coote) was born at Ash Hill which was known as Castle Coote at that time' (www.ashhill.com/about-us). The 1659 Civil Survey of Limerick recorded that John Gould FitzWilliam was the owner of 'Knockash [Ash hill] North & South mearing with ye Logh north with the high way and Spittle lands South; and the lands, and gardens of Patrick Gould East and the lands of Francis Creagh West' (Simington 1938, 198). There is no mention of any castle on these lands in the Civil Survey. Site of Castle Coote probably represents the remains of a 17th/18th century castellated or fortified house built as the country residence for the Coote family who acquired these lands c. 1667. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 20 August 2021