Tarsna

Area

194,237 m² (19.42 ha, 48 acres)

Buildings

1 building touches it. Its footprint covers 95 m².

Zoning

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

Townland

Tarsna

Planning applications on this parcel

No planning application touches this parcel in the national file, which goes back to 2010.

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

Designated sites

No designated site (Special Area of Conservation, Special Protection Area, Natural Heritage Area or proposed one) touches this parcel.

Recorded monuments around it

This parcel is in the zone of notification of 5 recorded monuments.

• TS054-053 Castle - tower house
  Description

  On a slight rise in a field, with a possible motte (TS054-054---) located 560m to the E and deer park (TS054-071----) immediately to the E. The Lord of 'Cowellqueyle' is named in a list of suitors to the Earl of Ormond in 1508 (COD III, 335). The Civil Survey (1654-6) describes 'a good castle yett wanting repayre & a Bawne & a thatcht house' and lists the proprietor in 1640 as 'Morish Stoke of Coolequiell Irish Papist' (Simington 1931, vol. 1, 130). Three storeys remain of the original five-storey tower house. According to the landowner the upper storeys were demolished about forty years ago (c. 1950s). The tower house is of roughly coursed sandstone rubble construction with cut quoins intact, although those on the W angle are denuded, and a base-batter (H 2.4m; Wth c.0.15m). There are vaults over the ground and second floors. A T-shaped house was built up against the E end of the NE wall of the tower house. An extension at the W of the house incorporated the remainder of the NE wall, up to and including first-floor level. The tower house entrance is at the W end of the NW wall, with a yett-hole at the apex of the pointed doorway. This leads to an entrance lobby, above which there is a murder-hole. Off this entrance lobby are two partially collapsed doorways, one leading directly into the ground-floor vaulted chamber, the other into a second lobby which gives access to the mural stair. The stair rises in the NW wall and continues along the NE wall before a spiral stair rises in the E angle, just above second-floor level. The opening for a spy hole, in the internal face of the NW wall of the lobby area, has been destroyed, though the hole itself survives (D 1.1m). The ground floor was lit by two windows, one in the NE, blocked, the other in the SE wall. The first floor is accessed from the mural stair in the NE wall. It was lit by two windows, one in the SW, broken-out, the other, blocked, in the NW wall. The murder-hole was accessed from a niche in the NW window embrasure. A doorway at the NE end of the SE wall leads to an L-shaped garderobe chamber which runs along the SE wall and turns in the S angle. It is lit by a window in the SE and SW wall. There were two small attempts to buttress the E end of the NE wall, the more substantial of which is tearing free of the wall, while the smaller buttress has partially collapsed. The second floor was entered from the mural stair in the NE wall. It was carried on a wooden floor supported by corbels on the NE and SW walls. It was lit by two windows, one single-light ogee in the SW and the other broken out in the NW wall. In the NE side of the NW window embrasure there is an entrance to an inaccessible mural chamber in the N angle. In the SE wall there is a door recess cut into the vault which may have given access to an L-shaped garderobe chamber which runs along the SE wall and S angle. Internally many of the features are unstable. Part of the ground-floor vault has collapsed, door arches and window embrasures are falling and the lintels in the garderobe chambers are badly split and some, particularly in the upper chamber, have collapsed. The NW wall is particularly unstable due to the later insertion of a fireplace and flue which were knocked through the masonry and thus seriously undermined the wall. It has a large gaping hole at second-floor level and a bad crack which continues down to the original ground-floor doorway. The SW face also has a number of cracks. The S angle of the tower house collapsed on 2 February 2021. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of revised upload: 12 February 2021

• TS054-054 Castle - motte
  Description

  On high ground in upland region with Coolquill castle (TS054-053----) 560m to the W in a recently planted confierous plantation. No accesss road provided into monument which is now located in the centre of a large coniferous plantation. Possible motte located in the centre of the 'Old Deer Park' (TS054-071----) associated with the nearby tower House (TS054-053----). Described in the OS letters as a 'moat measuring 50 paces in circumference at the base and about 16 ft [4.8m] high (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 1, 154). It is depicted on the 25-inch OS map as a roughly circular raised area (diam. c. 40m N-S; c. 36m E-W). Access to the monument was not gained. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 26 August 2011

• TS054-071 Deer park
  Description

  Large rectangular area (int. dims. 580m NE-SW; 600m NW-SE) enclosed by a dry stone wall (T 0.6m; H 1.2m) which now act as modern field boundaries. The interior has been planted with a coniferous plantation. Possible motte (TS054-054----) in centre of deer park. Deer park associated with Coolquill castle (TS054-053----) which is located on the W angle of the deer park. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 26 August 2011

• TS055-036 Ringfort - rath
  Description

  On a S-facing slope of rising ground in upland region in centre of coniferous plantation on high ground with good views in all directions. Well-preserved ringfort situated in coniferous plantation which respects the monument by keeping a buffer zone of approx. 15m of unplanted trees around monument, however, no access road or pathway into monument from nearby roadway. Circular area (int. diam. 28m N-S; 30m E-W) enclosed by an earth and stone bank (top Wth 2m; base Wth 5m; int. H 0.2m; ext. H 1.5m) and wet outer fosse (base Wth 1.2m; top Wth 4m; ext. D 1m) with no clear entrance feature visible. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 26 August 2011

• TS055-037 Enclosure
  Description

  In forestry plantation on high ground in upland area with good views in all directions. Enclosure picked up on aerial photograph (GSI S. 600/1) taken in 1974 and now situated in centre of recently planted coniferous forestry plantation which does not respect the monument and no visible remains of possible enclosure which was probably destroyed by plantation if it was a monument. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 26 August 2011

Architectural heritage

No building of the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage stands on this parcel.

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).

Ground and risks

Radon

At the centre of this parcel, about 1 in 5 homes in this area is likely to have high radon levels. Testing a home

Landslides

The 1:50,000 map rates the landslide susceptibility here as moderately low, low, partly inferred.

Terrain model

No LiDAR survey of the Office of Public Works covers the centre of this parcel.

Flooding

The Office of Public Works publishes its flood maps on floodinfo.ie.

Radon Risk Map of Ireland, Environmental Protection Agency, and Landslide Susceptibility Classification, Geological Survey Ireland, both under 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.

Download this parcel as DXF, in Irish Transverse Mercator metres, with its neighbours and buildings, for a drawing program. GeoJSON, in WGS 84, suits a map, and KML opens in Google Earth.

Registered freehold land, Tailte Éireann, CC BY 4.0. A parcel is the land of a title, not an address. The owner's name is in the Land Registry of Tailte Éireann: a copy of the folio can be ordered on landdirect.ie, for a fee.