Rattin Castle — Rattin

Rattin Castle was the residence of the D'Arcy family and in 1600 the castle was in the possession of Thomas Darcy Fitz Walter. A branch of this family lived in Hyde Park House, Killucan, Co. Westmeath, located 7.3km to the NE. The castle stands on elevated rising grassland with good views to the N and E with limited views to the W due to rising ground. Poorly drained peatland lies 650m to the S and W, with well drained grassland to the NW through N to E, Kinnegad River 280m to the N. Rattin (Raitin/unenclosed land, common?) Castle stands in the parish of Killucan, in the barony of Farbill, Co. Westmeath. It stands in the SE corner of Co. Westmeath, 700m N and 900m E of the border with Co. Westmeath. The town of Kinnegad lies 4.7km to the ENE and Milltown Pass lies 4km to the W. The village of Killucan, lies 8km to the N. Clonfad Monastery (WM027-067----) founded around the middle of the 6th century by St. Etchen and graveyard (WM027-066001-) stands 2.2km to the N. Clonfad Mill (WM034-037----) stands 1.4km to the NW. In the year 1600 a Crown pardon was granted to ‘Tho[mas]. Darcye fitz Walter, of Ratin, co. Westmeath’ (Nicholls 1994, Fiant No. 6397). No castle is depicted on the 1654 Down Survey map of Farbill barony, the terrier of the Down Survey Barony map stated that; 'There are likewise in this Barony the Castles of Heathestowne, Ballaguter Rattin Lisnabin and Clunicully being very small ones formerly and now quite demolished' (NLI MS 723-4). On the 1654 Down Survey map these lands belonged in 1640 to Nicholas Darcy of Platin Castle (ME027-003002-), Co. Meath. In 1671, Nicholas Darcy of Platin Castle, petitioned King Charles II stating; ‘that in consideration of his merits and sufferings, the King ordered his acquittal from the new quit-rents imposed on his estate by the Act of Explanation, and that by a mistake of the Auditor-General in drawing up a particular of the estate, the lands of Ballyeighter, Ballyoughtor, and Rattin in West Meath and Commonstown, being part of Plattin, also Moullaghtillin in Meath, were left out, so that the new quit-rent thereof, amounting to £27. 7s. 5d., was not included in the order of remittal, and praying supplemental orders for freeing the petitioner from the said quit-rent and the arrears thereof (Calendar of State Papers: Of the Reign of Charles II, 256-7). Ten years later in 1681 Nicholas Darcy leased the ‘castle-town, and lands of Rattin’ to James Clarke (Anon 1701, 120). In 1703 Ephraim Dawson of Dublin bought from the Commissioners of Forfeited Estates the town and lands of Clonfad containing 581 plantation acres profitable land and 114 plantation acres of bog, (941 plus 189, total 1,130 statute); Ratteen or Rattin 277 plantation acres profitable land and 154 plantation acres unprofitable, (449 plus 252, total 701 statute); Ballyoughter (Balloughter or Hightown) 474 plantation acres profitable land and 305 acres unprofitable (768 plus 494, total 1,262 statute); for £3,490; it was the estate of Nicholas D’Arcy of Platten, Co Meath, attainted. Nicholas D'Arcy of Platten was in the Jacobite army where he served in Lord Dongan's Dragoons, he was wounded in Derry and attainted in 1691 (D'Alton 1855, 158). In 1902 the castle was drawn by the Reverend William Falkiner, The Rectory, Killucan, County Westmeath (https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000154094). In this drawing the NW wall of the castle is shown to be intact with a tall diagonal-shaped chimney stack of 17th-century appearance rising from the top of the SW wall of the castle. Only the lower courses of this chimneystack survives today. An ITA photograph from 1942 of Rattin Castle (https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000577675) shows the intact chimneystack rising from the SW wall of the castle indicating that the N corner of the castle along with the tall chimneystack collapsed sometime after 1942 (NLI, NPA ITA 1535 (Box VIII)). The castle was described by Casey and Rowan (1993, 368-9) as a; 'Massive and imposing tower house. One of the largest and plainest isolated towers in Midhe [Meath], now ruinous, with little or no surviving cutstone detail. Four storeys rise from a battered base and the thick walls are honeycombed with mural chambers, stairs and passages, especially on the E side, where a number of separate and substantial long vaulted rooms remain. Here some traces of wickerwork centering survive. By the c17 the castle was in the hands of Nicholas D'Arcy of Platten in Co. Meath. The manor of Rathwire (WM020-125001-) had been granted to John D'Arcy of Platten in 1336, and the lands of Rattin may well have been part of the same grant; so the castle may be of the mid-c 14, though whether it was built by the D'Arcys or by their Westmeath tenants is not clear' (Cal. Patent Rolls Edw. III, 1334-8, 94). According to Wheelock (2008); 'Sir John D’Arcy, 1st Baron D’Arcy de Knayth was the first of the family to be granted lands in Ireland. He was a loyal servant of the crown having fought at Halidon Hill (1333) and Crecy (1346), and acted as Justiciar of Ireland between 1332 and 1344. He was granted lands by Edward III, including the Manor of Rathwire in county Westmeath; the lands had formally been held by Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl March. The D’Arcy family of Hyde Park were descended from Sir John and his second wife Joan de Burgh, widow of Thomas Fitzgerald, 2nd Earl of Kildare'. Rattin Castle was described by Salter (2004, 154) as; ‘originally built probably in the 15th century this tower measured 9.9m square over walls 1.6m thick except on the NE side where a thickness of 2.2m was required to accommodate a stair rising up from an entrance doorway facing SE. There were five storeys, the third level being a low loft under an unusually wide vault, now gone. In a 16th century remodelling the tower was given a new battered base and extended at the SE to provide a tier of mural chambers there and a new entrance, thus increasing its basal dimensions to 13.8m by 11m. In the 17th century the castle was held by Nicholas D'Arcy of Platten but it may originally have been built by a tenant of the D'Arcy family’. Present remains consist of a square-shaped 4-storey high 14th/15th century castle (int. dims. 6.45m NE-SW; 6.75m NW-SE; wall T 1.6m) aligned SE-NW with rounded corners that was extended to the SE possibly during the second half of the 16th century or early 17th-century. The S and E corners of the extended castle are square-shaped while the N and W angles of the castle are rounded. A straight joint is visible off centre to the S in the SW wall of the castle where the tower was extended to the SE. Most of the external window surrounds have been robbed out as well as the cut and dressed quoin stones on the S and E angles at ground level only. From first floor level upwards the alternating long and short quoins are intact on the S and E angles only. The walls stand to nearly their full height and are constructed with random rubble. The earlier NW section of the castle has rounded corners with no base batter while the SE end of the castle has square-corners with a prominent high base batter visible. The tower is entered through a broken out doorway located near E end of SE wall, door surrounds missing, which leads into a lobby area with remains of a murder hole directly above entrance into castle and stone-vaulted guard-chamber off lobby to S. The vaulted guard-chamber is lit by a broken out window ope located off centre to S in the SE wall. A second window directly opposite in the NW wall of the guard-chamber provides a view into the main chamber of the ground floor. A small wall niche or cupboard is visible in the W corner of the SW wall of the guard-chamber. Wicker centring visible on vault over the guard-chamber. The SE side of the castle stands four storeys high with a stone vault over the ground floor of this wing of the castle which was an extension to the earlier castle in the 16th-17th century. The main chamber