House — 16th/17th century in Graystown

On the W edge of limestone ridge, runs roughly NE-SW and the drop, while substantial to valley below, is less steep than that from the tower house (TS054-037002-) which is located immediately to SW.  The house may have been built by James Laffan ‘of Ballengrey’, and ‘of Grayestown’, who died in 1607, or his son, Thomas Laffan (Curtis 1943, vol. 6, 19, 26, deeds 26, 41; O’Donnell 2006, 54-5). Both were well-established figures in the county, with James serving as Sheriff of County Tipperary in 1585/6 and 1592 and as Sheriff of the Liberty of Tipperary in 1597, and Thomas elected as a Member of Parliament in 1613 (O’Donnell 2006, 54-5). The Civil Survey (1654-6) records Henry Laffan, Thomas’s son, as the proprietor of Graystown in 1640, which had ‘a good castle, a slate house wantinge repaire with a large bawne & severall cabbins' ((Simington 1931, vol. 1, 106). The Down Survey map (1655-6) depicts a castle, a large rectangular bawn with two free-standing houses inside, and three cabins to the north of the castle (National Library of Ireland MS 721). Following the Cromwellian confiscations of 1652, the Laffan’s of Graystown were transplanted to Galway (Simington 1970, 93-4). The land was initially granted to Eliah Greene, but by 1659, as recorded in the Census of Ireland, ‘Giles Cooke gent’ was named as the Cromwellian grantee of ‘Graistowne’ (O’Donnell 2006, 54; Pender 2002, 296). A two-storey building (int. dims. Wth 7.1m; L 24.3-26.3m; wall T 1.3m) with attic, aligned N-S, though only the N gable and portion of the return at the NE and NW survive. It is built of limestone rubble, roughly coursed with quoins of roughly cut blocks of limestone on NW angle. The quoins at the NE angle are better executed, cut limestone blocks above the existing bawn wall. Based on the description in the Civil Survey it had a slate roof. All floors of the house were wooden, carried on large joists set into the side walls, with a rebate on the N gable. The N gable was built on top of the existing bawn wall (TS054-037001-) associated with the 16th-century tower house. A blocked-up double gun-loop, formerly at wall-walk level in the bawn, is visible in the external face of the N gable. Internally there are no visible features at ground-floor level. At first-floor level in the N gable there is a central fireplace with only one chamfered limestone surround surviving, there are no other fireplaces in this gable. W of the fireplace there is a window embrasure, though only the lower E jamb of the window survives. At attic level there is a large flat-headed single-light window on either side of the internally projecting chimney. At the NE angle there is a circular bartizan in good condition, resting on a double corbel on the N and E wall and on a single chamfered pyramidal corbel on the angle. Within the wall of the bartizan are four gun loops, simple, small, rectangular slots. The high pitch roof of the house has two coping stones, one on either side of the roof. At the apex there is a square-plan chimney with coping on its internal face. There is a crack up the W side of the N gable, probably were the existing bawn wall was altered to accommodate the house. Only the N end of the W wall survives up to base of attic level, at both ground and first-floor level, near the NW angle, there are remains of a window embrasure. Two projecting gutter-stones show the internal roof line, at the base of a parapet which ran along the W wall. The remainder of the W wall does not survive but has been replaced by a thin wall, built of limestone rubble which has partially collapsed and been rebuilt. A short length of E wall, near the NE angle, survives with evidence of a window embrasure at both ground and first-floor level. The W jambs of a gateway of the pre-existing bawn are built into the N end of this wall, the external lime render of the house runs up to these jambs which are large limestone blocks. These are surmounted by an arch, the springers of which survive in the E face of the house. Dividing the ground and first floor externally there is a string course. This string course terminates above the gate arch. The original gateway of the bawn appears to have been blocked up when the house was built and another entrance was opened further E along the N wall of the bawn. At the SE angle of the house there is a large square-shaped sunken depression (TS054-037020-) which may represent the remains of a walled garden/inner courtyard contemporary with the 17th-century house. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly