Mulchans Castle in ruins — Mulchanstown

Situated on a natural hillock in poorly drained grassland overlooking a small lake immediately to S with medieval parish church (WM013-057----) of Killulagh 620m to W. Depicted on the 1837 OS Fair Plan maps as a small square-shaped structure annotated ‘Mulchan’s Castle in ruins’. Poorly preserved castle possibly a small tower house, of which only the S wall (L 7.5m; H 2m; Wall T 1m) and a section of the S end of the W wall (3.2m; H 3m) remains upstanding, with grass-covered wall footings visible elsewhere. The poorly walls are rubble built with no dressed stone and no base batter visible. The internal faces of the S and W walls have been robbed out. Originally the castle appears to have consisted of a rectangular shaped area (approx. ext. dims. 10m N-S; 9m E-W), situated on top of a hillock the base of which has been scarped with traces of an external fosse visible on E side of hillock and low berm at S. No evidence of an enclosing bawn. Mulchanstown Castle is not depicted on either the 1655-9 Down Survey parish map of Killulagh or the Barony map of Delvin (NLI, MS 723-4). In 1641 the lands of Mulchanstown belonged to Sir Thomas Nugent who is listed in the Down Survey as an ‘Irish Papist’. Compiled by: Frank Coyne and Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 10 April 2018