Site of Faddanmore Castle — Report the wrong picture

What is recorded here

Faddan More hides a Mac Coghlan castle built around 1500, now absent from the ground despite appearing in the Annals of the Four Masters for 1520. Four modern trenches cut for an agricultural outbuilding found nothing, suggesting the castle either never stood tall or the earth took back every stone. What remains is a name floating above ordinary soil, promising a fortress that may have been little more than a border marker, a seasonal stronghold, or a mistake repeated until it became true.

Not visible at ground level. Mac Coghlan castle built about 1500 AD, mentioned in the Annals of the Four Masters in the year 1520 (ITA Survey 1942). (Cooke 1875, 335-9; O' Flanagan 1933, vol. 1, 58-9) Trial-trenching was carried out by Anne Carey under licence No. 07E0827 on 17 August 2007 at the site of a proposed agricultural outbuilding. Four trial-trenches were excavated on the site. No artefacts or features of archaeological interest were recorded during the testing (Bennett 2010, 402-03). The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Offaly' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Compiled by Caimin O'Brien Date of upload/revision: 8 November 2011

The castle at Faddanmore was built by the Mac Coghlan family around 1500 AD and is noted in the Annals of the Four Masters in 1520. It is remembered as an example of late medieval Irish castle architecture and as evidence of local clan power in the early 16th century.

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