What is recorded here

Ballylane East hides a vanished castle, remembered only through a faint map outline and stony ground discovered during drainage work near the mid-twentieth century. Edward Sutton owned a thousand acres there during the Civil Survey, yet no written account confirms whether he built the place or merely occupied land where an older structure had already collapsed. The missing building may have been a small residence, a boundary marker, or a mistaken drawing, but the stones beneath the soil suggest that human hands shaped the ground before forgetting erased the name.

Marked as the faint outline of a small building (dims. c. 10m E-W; c. 7m N-S) described as 'site of Castle' on the 1839 ed. of the OS 6-inch map. According to the Civil Survey (1654-6) Edward Sutton owned a thousand acres in Ballilane, but there is no record of a castle (Simington 1953, 206). There are no visible remains of a structure at ground level but there is local knowledge of stony ground encountered in drainage works c. 1950. The ecclesiastical site (WX034-021----) is c. 25m to the WSW. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Wexford' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1996). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload/revision: 13 September, 2012

Edward Sutton held the site of Castle Ballylane East in the mid-17th century, as recorded in the Civil Survey of 1654–5. Its importance lies in its association with Sutton, a significant landowner in the period following the English conquest of Ireland.

This remains an important historical record, but the official description says the monument is no longer visible or has been destroyed. The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.