Blean Castle (in Ruins) — Blean

Situated on flat, poorly drained land in undulating countryside. Remains consist of a poorly preserved L-plan house surviving two storeys high, the W end of which is destroyed and covered in collapsed rubble. Only the E wing (dims. 29.5m E-W x 7.2m N-S; wall T 1m) survives intact with the central part of the S wall destroyed. There are five flat-headed windows at ground-floor level on the N wall and three surviving windows on the S wall with a possible destroyed doorway in the centre of S wall protruding from the S façade. The westernmost window on the S wall appears to have been an oriel window. Flat-headed fireplaces occupy the centre of the E and W gables and a flat-headed doorway at the N end of the W wall gave access to the W end of the building. Nothing is visible at first-floor level due to ivy cover. There is a bawn wall return (TN022-030002) off the NE angle with wall-footings of a modern building described by O'Donovan (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 1, 197) protruding from the E gable which displays a slight base-batter. This is probably a seventeenth-century house with bawn wall to the N and landscaped gardens to the S as depicted on the 1st ed. OS 6-inch map. No cut stone is used in windows, fireplaces or doorways all of which were flat-headed with wooden lintels. Described in the Civil Survey 1654-6 as a 'castle (ye walls onely standinge) with a bawne and two thatcht houses' (Simington 1934, vol. 2, 212). Marcus maGrath is listed as proprietor in 1640 (ibid.). The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Tipperary. Vol. 1 - North Tipperary' compiled by Jean Farrelly and Caimin O'Brien (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2002). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 22 September 2008