Castle - tower house, Cummerstown, Co. Westmeath

Co. Westmeath |

Tower Houses

Castle – tower house, Cummerstown, Co. Westmeath

On a west-facing slope in Cummerstown, County Westmeath, a grass-covered mound of stones marks the location of a castle that once commanded views across the surrounding pastureland.

The rectangular mound, measuring roughly 15 metres north to south and 14.6 metres east to west, rises two metres above the ground and contains fragments of limestone masonry bound with mortar around its edges. This is all that remains of a tower house castle depicted on the 1659 Down Survey map of St. Mary's parish, which showed the structure standing beside a stream in what was then part of Fore barony.

The site reveals intriguing layers of history through its physical features. Two rectangular depressions are visible on the mound's surface, measuring 7.8 by 3.5 metres and 4.8 by 5.8 metres respectively, whilst the surrounding land bears traces of old cultivation ridges running east to west. A stream located 75 metres to the west once served as a millrace, and there's evidence of a post-medieval corn mill and millrace 110 metres to the south-southwest, possibly built on the site of an earlier medieval watermill. Aerial photographs from 2011 reveal faint earthwork traces north of the mound that may represent the remains of a bawn wall; a defensive courtyard wall that would have enclosed the tower house.

The castle's strategic position provided excellent visibility to the northwest, northeast and south, making it an ideal defensive location whilst also overseeing the agricultural activities of the surrounding area. Though now reduced to a mound of stones and earth, this site represents centuries of continuous use, from its possible medieval origins through its depiction as a functioning tower house in the 17th century, to its eventual abandonment and decay into the archaeological feature visible today.

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Pete F
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