Castle — Salestown

Situated on a level landscape, with the church at Salestown (ME050-025----) c. 600m to the NW. According to the Civil Survey (1654-6) 173 acres at Salestown in Dunboyne parish were owned by a Mr. De la Sale in 1640, and on the premises was ‘one small castle, one decayed chaple and nine tenements’ (Simington 1940, 125). This is a rectangular structure (ext. dims 7.2m NW-SE; 6.1m NE-SW) surviving to the top of the vault with almost all the dressed stone removed. It is entered through a round-headed doorway towards the N end of the NW wall, which is probably the inner doorway from a lobby that has been destroyed. The doorway leads directly into a ground floor chamber with two arched recesses in the SW wall, probably for lights that are now closed and obscured, and one on the NE wall that has traces of a chimney flue. Much of the NW and the SE walls are damaged but, there is a single light towards the E end of the SE wall. The first floor is under a NW-SE barrel-vault with wicker-centring and was supported on corbels in the NE and SW walls. It has a light in the SE wall, but the NW wall is destroyed and if there was a stairs at the N angle there is no evidence of it now. Any upper floors do not survive and the top of the vault is completely overgrown. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Meath' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1987). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of revision: 13 July 2016