Ballycowan

64 registered freehold parcels lie mostly in Ballycowan, from 136 m² to 197,257 m² (19.73 ha, 48.74 acres). The dashed line is the townland's boundary; 37 neighbouring parcels touch it.

Download the townland: DXF, in Irish Transverse Mercator metres, with its boundary, parcels and buildings; GeoJSON or KML.

No zone of a development plan covers Ballycowan in the national zoning. Outside zoned towns and villages, the county development plan's rural policies apply to each application.

Source: Tailte Éireann and the Department of Housing (MyPlan), national zoning, CC BY 4.0.

• 22 Apr 2026Conditional

  CONSTRUCTION OF NEW DOMESTIC GARAGE/STORAGE SHED AND INSTALLATION OF NEW SEPTIC TANKS/ETS, PERCOLATION AREA AND ASSOCIATED SITE WORKS

  Permission, 1 home · Offaly County Council, 2636

• 30 Aug 2023Conditional

  (A) EXTENSION TO EXISTING STABLES, (B) ERECTION OF A NEW HAY AND STRAW STORAGE SHED, (C) RELOCATION OF AGRICULTURAL ENTRANCE AND ASSOCIATED SITE WORKS

  Permission, 2 homes · Offaly County Council, 23372

• 23 May 2017Conditional

  THE CONSTRUCTION OF A TWO STOREY HOUSE, DETACHED GARAGE, EFFLUENT TREATMENT SYSTEM, PERCOLATION AREA AND ALL ASSOCIATED SITE WORKS

  Permission, 1 home · Offaly County Council, 17181

Source: National Planning Applications, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, CC BY 4.0. Applicants are not shown.

Designated sites

• Proposed Natural Heritage Area: Grand Canal 002104

Recorded monuments

• OF016-018001 House - fortified house
  Description

  Located on a low natural mound in an area of undulating countryside with good extensive views. 17th-century fortified house five storeys high with tall chimney stacks and square headed transomed and mullioned windows that was built in 1626 by Sir Jasper Harbert whose coat of arms can be seen above the two centred arch doorway of the entrance tower. This door has pronounced pocked dressing on its surface with a yett hole on the right hand side with a machicoulis directly above it at wall walk level. The entrance tower acts as a reception area for the main building with the remains of the masonry support of a large winding stairs which was abutted to the N wall of the tower from which the first and upper floors of the tower house were accessed. This tower (int. dims. 6m N-S; 5m E-W; wall T 1m) has three large fireplaces each one served individually by tall rectangular shaped chimney stacks. The main rectangular block has three fireplaces with three accompanying chimney stacks, these fireplaces are located on the upper floors of the building which were presumably the main living area. Several musket loops visible on the N wall of main tower and S wall of the tower. The doorway into this rectangular house survives intact on the E wall, this doorway is of the two centred type with slight punch dressed jambs and gives access to four barrel vaulted rooms at ground floor level. Excellent evidence of wickerwork centring on the underside of the vaulting, original mural stairs in the S wall now blocked up gave access to upper floors of main tower. The upper storeys had wooden floors with large fireplaces and large transomed and mullioned windows probably inserted in the 17th-century. Bartizan on NE corner of tower house with evidence of bawn wall on the SE and E walls of the main tower. Large barrel vaulted ground floor is divided into four small rooms of varying size with a fireplace on the W wall of the NW compartment, possible kitchen area. The flue of this chimney protrudes beyond the external face of the W wall. To the S of the building there is the gable end of what appears to be a guard house with wall walk which was orientated on an E-W axis and formed a range of buildings within the bawn area. Armorial stone located above the doorway on the E face of the house dated to 1626. The armorial stone bears the arms of the Harbert family, with the motto below 'By God of might, I hold my right'. (O' Flanagan 1933, vol. 1, 45-8; Garner 1985, 38) 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. Date of upload: 23 May 2011

• OF016-018003 Inscribed stone
  Description

  Located on a low natural mound in an area of undulating countryside with good extensive views. 17th-century fortified house (OF016-018001-) five storeys high with tall chimney stacks and square headed transomed and mullioned windows that was built in 1626 by Sir Jasper Harbert whose coat of arms can be seen above the two centred arch doorway of the entrance tower. The armorial stone (OF016-018004-) bears the arms of the Harbert family, with the motto below 'By God of might, I hold my right'. Over this entrance and below the armorial plaque there is an inscribed stone which reads 'This house was built by Sir Jasper Harbert Knight and Dame Joan Finglas in the year 1626' 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. Date of upload: 23 May 2011

• OF016-018004 Armorial plaque
  Description

  Located on a low natural mound in an area of undulating countryside with good extensive views. 17th-century fortified house (OF016-018001-) five storeys high with tall chimney stacks and square headed transomed and mullioned windows that was built in 1626 by Sir Jasper Harbert whose coat of arms can be seen above the two centred arch doorway of the entrance tower. The armorial stone bears the arms of the Harbert family, with the motto below 'By God of might, I hold my right'. Over this entrance and below the armorial plaque there is an inscribed stone which reads 'This house was built by Sir Jasper Harbert Knight and Dame Joan Finglas in the year 1626' 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. Date of upload: 23 May 2011

• OF016-018005 Bawn
  Description

  Located on a low natural mound in an area of undulating countryside with good extensive views. 17th-century fortified house (OF016-018001-) five storeys high with tall chimney stacks and square headed transomed and mullioned windows that was built in 1626 by Sir Jasper Harbert whose coat of arms can be seen above the two centred arch doorway of the entrance tower. To the S of the building there is the gable end of what appears to be a guard house with wall walk which was orientated on an E-W axis and formed a range of buildings within the bawn area. (O' Flanagan 1933, vol. 1, 45-8; Garner 1985, 38) 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. Date of upload: 23 May 2011

Architectural heritage

• Ballycowan Bridge, bridge, 1790–1810 · Regional interest
  Description

  Single-arch masonry bridge, built c.1804, over the Grand Canal. Coursed limestone lower wall with segmental arch profile. Walls are a continuation of the lock chamber. String course. Parapets of random rubble and coped with dressed blocks. Humped deck. Situated beside the 29th lock of the Grand Canal.

• Huband's Aqueduct, aqueduct, 1800–1805 · Regional interest
  Description

  Three-arch aqueduct over river, dated 1803. Part ivy-covered snecked limestone walls centred on tooled limestone ashlar triangular cutwaters to piers having pyramidal capping with cut-limestone stringcourses supporting parapets having cut-limestone coping centred on lichen-covered cut-limestone plaque ("1803"). Series of three segmental arches with tooled limestone ashlar voussoirs. Sited spanning Tullamore River with unkempt banks to river.

Designated sites: National Parks and Wildlife Service. Recorded monuments: Sites and Monuments Record, National Monuments Service. Buildings: National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, CC BY 4.0. Works at or in relation to a recorded monument need two months' written notice to the National Monuments Service (National Monuments (Amendment) Act 1994, section 12).

Radon

About 1 in 5 homes in this area is likely to have high radon levels. Testing a home

Landslides

Susceptibility low, low (inferred), on the 1:50,000 map.

Terrain model

LiDAR of the Office of Public Works, flown in 2011, at 2 m: tile OPW_1907 (ZIP).

Flooding

The flood maps of the Office of Public Works: floodinfo.ie.

Radon Risk Map of Ireland, Environmental Protection Agency; Landslide Susceptibility Classification, Geological Survey Ireland; both CC BY 4.0. LiDAR: contains Irish Public Sector Data (Geological Survey Ireland & the Office of Public Works) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.

No address of the register names Ballycowan with five sales or more. The sales of the area are on the page of Co. Offaly.

Name

Ballycowan · Baile Mhic Comhainn

Area

1,472,485 m² (147.25 ha, 363.86 acres)

Civil parish

Kilbride, and its townlands

Barony

Ballycowan

Electoral division

Silverbrook, the unit of the census

Census 2022

Silverbrook electoral division: 822 people in 266 households; 87% of households own their home; 38% of homes were built since 2001; 7% of dwellings stood vacant on census night, and 1% were holiday homes.

Neighbouring townlands

Ballykilmurry, Ballynamire, Kilbride, Kilgortin, Killiskea, Lynally Glebe

Placenames

Ballycowan on logainm.ie, the Placenames Database of Ireland

Townlands, civil parishes, baronies and electoral divisions, National Statutory Boundaries, Tailte Éireann, CC BY 4.0. Census 2022, Small Area Population Statistics by electoral division, Central Statistics Office, CC BY 4.0. A townland is the smallest land division of Ireland, and the unit of a rural address; old registers such as the 1901 and 1911 censuses file it under its civil parish and barony.