Ballynamoe Castle (in Ruins) — Ballynamoe

Situated in undulating terrain in pasture with ground falling away to the NW where there are a lot of rubble mounds. There is a boggy area immediately to the N. A seventeenth-century house (ext. dim. 16.63m x 7.51m; wall T 0.62m), three storeys high with attic, aligned NE-SW and incorporated into a farmyard that is now disused. The NW wall is intact to first-floor level and the SW gable survives almost entirely -the NE and SE walls do not survive. The house is of crude construction and is built of randomly coursed sandstone rubble. An external chimney projects from the SW gable which has a basal plinth (H 0.68m; Wth 0.16-0.28m) and is surmounted by a very steep-pitched roof. There are four small, crude windows with stone lintels at ground level in the NW wall and two survive at first-floor level, most of which have been severely altered. Near the N end of the NW wall there is a shot-hole demonstrating the defensive nature of the building. The gable has at least one window on every floor and fireplaces at ground-, first- and second-floor level - the missing lintels may have been wooden. Farm buildings have been built up around the house including a concrete shed in the interior which utilises the NW wall as a back wall. According to the Civil Survey (1654-6) there was 'a stumpe of a old castle all waste' in Ballynamoe, the land being owned by Daniel, Gullerneuffe and William McEgan, Irish Papists (Simington 1931, vol. 1, 18). 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