House — 17th century in Derrynashallog

Situated on the E-facing slope of the spine of a NE-SW drumlin ridge. Oliver Anketill, a grandson of Christopher Anketill, of Shaftsbury, Dorsetshire, came to Ireland in the middle of the seventeenth century and began to acquire land in north Monaghan, probably through direct purchase or the purchase of the interests of Undertakers and soldiers. He died in 1666 and his memorial (MO009-060011-) is in Monaghan town. In 1667 3300 acres in seventy townlands in the barony of Errigal Trough were confirmed to his son, Mathew. Derrynashallog, which had been owned by a Gareth Rooney in 1640 became the centre of the estate known as Anketill’s Grave (Grove). Mathew died in 1688 and his memorial (MO007-014006-) is in Glaslough but his son Oliver, who was sheriff of Monaghan in 1710 and an MP for Monaghan town in 1759-60, is thought have built a house at Derrynashallog. Oliver died in 1760, and the house was pulled down in 1781 by his grandson Mathew when the family moved to a new Anketell Grove, in Gortmoney c. 1.5km to the S. (Shirley 1879, 154-60) Taylor and Skinners’ map (1778) of the roads of Ireland (Andrews 1969, 267) depicts Anketill Grove as a ruin at Derrynashallog, although McCrea’s map of the Barony of Trough (1793) shows it as a roofed house. The 1834 edition of the OS 6-inch map does not indicate the location of the house, but it does portray a designed landscape at Derrynashallog with an avenue rising up the slope from the NE and the direction of Emy Lough. A geophysical survey (08R0058) of the area, known locally as the castle field, which was research carried out by Dr. Siobhán McDermott as part of a PhD thesis in NUI Galway, revealed a T-plan 17th century house (dims 22m NW-SE; 14m NE-SW) within a rectangular enclosure (dims 29m NW-SE; 22m NE-SW) at the SW end of the avenue. The house signals were weak, suggesting that the house might have been constructed of wood, and a number of pits in the interior are likely to be cellars which were back-filled in the twentieth century. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Monaghan' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1986). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of revision: 29 August 2017