1995:104 - BALLYOWEN CASTLE, Ballyowen Lane, Lucan, Dublin

The castle and surrounding four acres are shortly to be developed as a shopping centre. In response, a survey of the building, in use as a stable until recently, was carried out in association with an excavation. The latter revealed the remains of at least two earlier stone structures.

The castle represents an early example of a 'defended house' and probably dates from the 16th century. Although little is known of its early history, the placename may relate to a John Owenye who had rights on the River Liffey in the area in 1407. By 1500 a John Bollsinge briefly held the castle, with the Taylors holding it until the late 16th century. In the 17th century the Nottingham family had possession of the castle with the Rochforts replacing them in the early 18th century. The castle is listed in the 17th-century Hearth Money Roll and is depicted in Petty's map of 1685.

The upstanding remains at the site consist of a rectangular stone castle (Structure A) surviving to first-floor level with a projecting turret at the north-east corner. It measures 11.6m east-west by 5.7m north-south with the turret measuring 1.9m east-west by 2.1m north-south. Original features include a blocked doorway with a decorative stone surround in the north wall, the remains of small blocked window opes with pointed segmented arches, and two small musket loops at semi-basement level in the turret. In addition, the scar of a wall, bonded in with the main castle, still survives in the north face of the turret, on the eastern side. This originally extended northwards and was probably a bawn wall.

A second phase was clearly identified in the form of large rectangular windows which were inserted through the original smaller windows. This phase of the castle's history was depicted by both Beranger (c. 1766) and Brocas (1794-1866), indicating that the castle was originally an impressive residence, three storeys high, with a small attic, a series of chimneys and surrounding bawn wall.

Excavations on the north side of the castle revealed the foundation course of a roughly made clay-bonded wall (Structure C), measuring 1m wide, 0.5m high and constructed from massive natural limestone boulders. The wall was orientated east-west, roughly parallel to the castle and extending beneath the castle on the northern side, forming what may be the north-east corner. Several sherds of locally made medieval pottery (red fabric, green-glazed) were recovered from within the wall.

Excavations on the east side of the castle, beneath the stone foundations of a later farmhouse, revealed a large medieval stone building (Structure B) which post-dated Structure C. It measured 12.5m north-south by 6m east-west with a rectangular projection (possibly for a hearth/chimney) roughly centred on its eastern wall. This measured internally 2.5m north-south by 1m east-west. The walls were made of well-cut rectangular limestone blocks, strongly mortared with a distinctive bright yellow gritty mortar. They measured 0.8–1m wide and stood less than 0.5m high. Several sherds of locally made green-glazed pottery were found at the base of the wall. No other archaeological layers survived in situ.

Structure B was evidently a large stone building which pre-dates the existing castle. This may suggest a date in the 15th/16th century.

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