Carlanstown Castle — Carlanstown

Carlanstown House and its adjoining farmyard are enclosed by the bawn wall of Carlanstown Castle. In 1641 'Carolanstowne' Castle was the property of Robert Nugent who was listed as an 'Irish Papist' in the 1657 Down Survey map of Lickbla parish (NLI, MS, 723-4). The castle is depicted as a large castellated structure on the 1657 Down Survey map of Fore Barony (ibid.). In 1864 George Victor Du Noyer sketched the bawn wall of Carlanstown Castle and drew up plans and elevation drawings of the angle towers (George Victor Du Noyer, “W face of Carlanstown Castle Co. W Meath. Sheet 1/3,” Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, accessed November 20, 2017, http://rsai.locloudhosting.net/items/show/23489.). The collection of Du Noyer drawings of this castle are available online on the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland website (https://rsai.locloudhosting.net/collections/show/2). Described in 1826 as 'the ruins of Carlanstown, formerly the mansion of a distinguished branch of the Nugent family. Sir Thomas Nugent, founder of this distinguished line of his family, and the first of the Nugents seated at Carlanstown, was second and youngest son of Richard, seventh baron of Delvin, and brother of Christopher, eight baron of Delvin, progenitor of the Marquess of Westmeath' (Brewer 1826, 234). In 1837 the construction of Carlanstown House was described as a 'good farm-house has been built by the Duke of Buckingham on the site of the old mansion' (Lewis 1837). The 1813 date-stone now built into the S wall of the stables may be related to this building phase. Present remains consist of a square shaped bawn (WM001-031----) enclosed by stone wall originally defended by four circular-shaped corner towers of which two now survive upstanding at NW and NE angles. A square-headed doorway on W side of bawn with scroll brackets (WM001-031001-) which may date from the late 17th or early 18th century and may have come from Carlanstown Castle. A tall rectangular chimney stack projecting externally from the W wall of the bawn close to a semi-circular shaped tower at S end of W wall probably marks the location of the 17th century house which stood in the SW quadrant of the bawn. The chimney stack served a ground floor fireplace now obscured by farm buildings. The protruding chimney stack is clearly shown on Du Noyer's sketch of the wall dating from 1864 (George Victor Du Noyer, “W face of Carlanstown Castle Co. W Meath. Sheet 1/3,” Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, accessed November 20, 2017, http://rsai.locloudhosting.net/items/show/23489.). To the N of the chimney stack the quoins of the NW angle of the house or castle may be seen rising above the top of the bawn wall immediately adjacent to a corrugated roofed farm outhouse. The semi-circular shaped tower at S end of W wall of bawn may have formed the SW angle of the fortified house and there may have been a gateway or entrance into the bawn immediately S of this semi-circular shaped tower. A horizontal gun loop in the ground floor of the semi-circular-shaped tower runs across into the adjoining section of bawn wall running S off tower which indicates that the bawn wall ran further S from the semi-circular shaped tower. Post-1700 farm buildings and farmyard occupies the S half of the bawn area. Carlanstown House stands along the line of the destroyed S wall of the bawn. Carlanstown House was described by the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage as a 'Detached three-bay two-storey house, built c.1800, with projecting flat-roofed single-bay single-storey porch to centre of front façade (south). Possibly incorporating the fabric of an earlier house. Later two-storey extension adjoining to the east. This structure probably replaced an earlier house or castle (WM001-031001-) on the same site and forms part of an impressive group of structures with the extensive remains of a sixteenth/seventeenth century fortified bawn to the rear (north) of the present structure (www.buildingsofireland.ie). Compiled and revised by: Caimin O’Brien Date of revised upload: 3 November 2016