House — 17th century in Crossmoyle

Situated just off the shelf of the lower Diamond at Clones on the E side. It is on an E-facing slope, and on the side of the Diamond that was known as Castle Street. The lands of the monastery of Clones (MO011-010001-) were leased to Sir Henry Duke of Castlejordan, Co. Meath (ME052-005----) in 1586 and to Sir Francis Rushe in 1603. Rushe, who was married to Duke’s daughter, Mary, would probably have made a greater effort to develop the property, especially after the death of Sir Brian MacMahon in 1622. In 1623 Rushe was granted a charter for a weekly market and two fairs each year, which would have boosted the development of the town. The castle, as it is always referred to, is first mentioned in a lease of 1636, but it was clearly well established by then. It mentions ‘.. the brew house, kitchen, stable, and half the bawn from the north side of the great door…’ (Schlegel 2003, 53). At the outbreak of rebellion in October 1641 Clones was occupied by rebels and, according to the deposition of Robert Aldrich, the Protestant settlers took refuge in the castle and successfully repulsed three assaults. However, they surrendered on promises of security only to find their homes had been pillaged. At least 30 Protestants were murdered by the rebels, but Aldrich and some others eventually escaped to Enniskillen (Shirley 1879, 174-5). After the battle of Clones in 1643 the rebels departed the area. The castle is represented as a tower on the Down Survey barony map (1656-8), and in the 1680s the ‘Great House’ was leased by the Protestant bishop of Clogher, but it is described as being in a deplorable state. In 1689 the castle was besieged again by a Jacobite force which was repulsed (Schlegel 1999, 56), but the castle was badly damaged. It is described in detail in letters of the tenant John Todd in 1739 as ‘one parlour, three bedchambers with fireplaces… three little rooms without fireplaces or furniture.., a cellar, a brewhouse, a dairy, a stable for eight horses but no coach house, and a gateway..’ (quoted in Ó Drisceoil 2016, 6). The first image of the castle is in a drawing of Clones dated 1741 viewed from the SE. It shows the castle as an oblong building of two stories and garrets on the W side of a rectangular yard which is not the full extent of the original bawn. The doorway is at the first floor reached by steps and it was probably built on a vaulted ground floor or cellar, which would only have narrow lights that are not shown. Just N of the castle is the gateway and there is an unreconstructed part of the castle N of this. A feature like a tower with a conical cap further N is probably the NW angle of the bawn. Gabled structures on the S side of the bawn and in the interior could constitute the brewhouse, stables and other outhouses mentioned in the documents. In 1744 a Mr. Jack Mack proposed to lease part of the castle garden known as the Tanyard and build a new front ‘100 feet long and 14 feet high’, but it is not known if he proceeded with this. He was in the linen trade and may have converted the SE angle of the bawn into the industrial storehouse that survives over this angle. In 1754 the castle was roofless and it was proposed to sell the timber and leave the walls as a ruin. The new road to Monaghan was built by 1766, destroying the N part of the Castle garden, and in 1767 five new houses, known as the Castle Tenement, were built on the site of the castle and these still form this side of the Diamond as a date-stone confirms. A plan of the town dated 1768 depicts the Diamond much as it is today. The gateway of the castle may have survived as references continue to be made to it and to the castle garden. Mr. George Knight of Clones, who has researched the castle through the documents quoted here, identified parts of the structure in buildings behind the E side of the Diamond during 2016, and this can be confirmed (Ó Drisceoil 2016). The positively identified remains consist of a vaulted structure on the S side of the bawn, including the S wall rising over it, and the bawn wall extending E from it to the SE angle of the bawn and then N (L 13m) to where there is a doorway. The vaulted structure (int. dims 10.1m E-W; 3.7m N-S) was largely filled with rubble but it has two narrow loops, probably musket loops, on the N wall and at least one on the S wall, but two other openings in the S wall and one in the N wall directed light downwards into the plank-centred vault. There is an inserted doorway to the outside in the S wall and two large openings in the E wall, but the original entrance might be an inaccessible doorway in the W wall. The first storey of this building has three narrow loops and an inserted fireplace with brick in the S wall, the only surviving part. The vaulted structure was built simultaneously with the remains of the bawn. There are three large slit-opes which could serve as musket-loops between the vaulted structure and the corner of the bawn to the E, and there are four slit-opes (H c. 1.1m; Wth c. 0.15m) splaying to width of c. 0.5m internally in each of two rows in the E wall (surviving H c. 4m). These are the only known remains of the bawn. See the attached view (MO012-015_1) from the Down Survey (1656-8) County map where the castle is represented as a tower. See the attached view (MO012-015_2) from a drawing of 1741. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 26 January 2018