Castle — Newcastle (fartullagh By.)

The remains of a large multi-period castle that is difficult to examine as it has been incorporated into the S angle of a 19th century farmyard range of outbuildings adjoining the S side of Newcastle House. Salter (2004, 153) described this castle as a '13th century hall-house 15.m long by 10.2m wide over a battered base which contained just one room over a pair of vaults supported upon a longitudinal cross-wall which was probably a later insertion. The whole of the northern corner and adjoining walls and that end of the vaults are missing. Just part of the SW wall and a projecting wing or turret remain of a later extension to the NW'. The castle was described in 1983 as a rectangular tower (ext. dims. 10.5m NE-SW; c. 8m NW-SE) standing two storeys high (c. H 7-8m) with two stone vaulted chambers aligned NW-SE at ground floor level. The NE chamber has been altered to form an entrance gateway into the courtyard of Newcastle House. A keystone over the arch of the gateway on the SE face bears the inscription ‘RCC Esq. 1855’. In the SE wall of the tower there are the remains of a poorly preserved mural stairs which gave access to the first floor level. The SW wall of the castle runs for a total length of 23m extending beyond the rectangular tower. The inner NE face of this wall possesses a blocked up door and window opes all of which appear to be later 19th century rebuilding and associated with the farmyard outbuildings. In the 19th century the medieval SW wall was reused as the external wall of the SW range of the farmyard outbuildings of Newcastle House. At the NW end of the medieval section of the SW wall are the remains of a small square-shaped garderobe tower that projects outwards beyond the face of the SW wall. A garderobe outlet is visible in this tower at ground floor level. To the W of the garderobe tower are the remains of an 18th or 19th century horse mill. The projecting garderobe tower is depicted on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map as located midway along a rectangular building aligned NW-SE with rectangular tower at SE end. This larger building may have formed the footprint of the medieval castle of which only the rectangular tower, section of SW wall and garderobe tower survives. The castle was placed on the Register of Historic Monuments in 1984. This castle is depicted as a tower house type fortification on the 1657 Down Survey map of Newtown and Clonfad parish (NLI, MS 723-4). The terrier of the 1657 parish map of Clonfad records that ‘upon the lands of Newcastle stands a Castle’ (ibid.). The castle and lands of Newcastle in 1640 belonged to Thomas Tirrell (Tyrrell) an Irish papist (ibid.) whose lands were forfeited after the Irish Confederate Wars of 1641-53. The forfeited lands of Newcastle were granted in 1666 to Alderman Thomas Hooke who was mayor of Dublin in 1654. Compiled and revised by: Caimin O'Brien Date of revised upload: 2 December 2016