Lissardowlan

10 registered freehold parcels lie mostly in Lissardowlan, from 2,134 m² (0.21 ha, 0.53 acres) to 514,671 m² (51.47 ha, 127.18 acres). The dashed line is the townland's boundary. 13 neighbouring parcels touch it.

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

No zone of a development plan covers Lissardowlan 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.

• 28 Feb 2017Conditional

  Construction of a two storey type dwelling house with attached sun lounge, with detached garage, entrance, boundary wall/fence, suitable on site waste water treatment system with percolation area and all ancillary site works

  Permission · Longford County Council, 1762

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 the townland of Lissardowlan.

Recorded monuments

• LF014-071001 Castle - motte and bailey
  Description

  In pastureland on a low but prominent ridge, orientated NW-SE, now overlooking the N4 – the main Dublin-Sligo road. Poorly drained land to the E and S may have provided a natural element of defence. This impressive motte and bailey may have been constructed sometime in the 1190s as part of the Anglo-Norman settlement of the Longford/Annaly region (O'Conor and De Meulemeester 2007, 83; Graham 1980, 52-3). It may incorporate an earlier pre-existing mound, the 6th-century seat of the kings of Teathbha (Dobbs 1938, 250). It represents the only upstanding remains of the medieval settlement (LF014-071----) at Lissardowlan. In medieval documents 'Incheleffer' also spelt 'Incheleder/Hincheleder' refers to the castle of Lissardowlan (Otway Ruthven 1968, 414; MacNiocaill 1977, 54 6). It was known in Irish as 'Ard-Abla' or 'Liss-ard-abhla' meaning 'fort of the hill of apple trees' (Orpen 1910, 224). In 1210-11 William le Petit paid £6. 10s. to strengthen the fortifications of Incheleffer (Davies and Quinn 1941, 25). In 1224 it was attacked by Hugh O'Conor and the garrison inside the castle was killed (ALC, vol. 1, 273). It consists of a high circular motte with an inner and outer crescent-shaped bailey to the SE. The motte (H c. 9.5m; diam. at base c. 36m) is steep sided and flat topped (12.9m NE-SW; 11.2m NW-SE). An OS trigonometrical station was erected on it in the 19th century. It is encircled by a wide deep inner fosse (Wth 11.7m; D 1.45m) from ENE-S-SW, where it separates the motte from the inner bailey. Elsewhere this fosse has been largely infilled. In 1975 (SMR file) a bank and outer fosse were noted from W-N-NW, an outer bank from SW-W and, on the summit, the remains of a rectangular building. None of these features are visible at ground level. However, a large lump of masonry (1.35m NE-SW; 1.2m NW-SE; H 0.3-0.85m) close to the base of the fosse at SE may be part of this building or it may be part of the stone defences that were on the summit, or else the remains of a stone base for a wooden bridge across the fosse (O'Conor and De Meulemeester 2007, 78). The inner bailey (c. 60m NE-SW; c. 26m NW-SE) is defined by a raised platform that is enclosed by an inner bank of earth and stone (Wth 7.6m; H 0.5m), with evidence of external stone-facing on the E side, an intervening wide, flat-bottomed, waterlogged fosse (Wth 13.3m), best preserved from to N-NE-E, a wide flat-topped outer bank (Wth 1.5m; H 0.8m) and an outer shallow fosse (Wth 0.6m; D 0.3m). A gap at SE accesses the outer bailey. The outer bailey (c. 70 NE-SW; c. 40m NW-SE) is defined by an inner bank mainly reduced to a scarp (H 0.6 1.1m), an intervening shallow waterlogged fosse (Wth 5.7m; D 0.8-1.2m) and an outer bank (Wth 4.2m; H 0.8m) of post-medieval appearance. A causewayed entrance gap is visible at E. The fosse and outer bank have been levelled from SW-W-WNW. The ground level of the outer bailey is considerably lower than that of the inner one. It is also morphologically different from the inner bailey suggesting that it may be a secondary feature. From NNE-NE-E the motte and both baileys are protected by a substantial inner bank of earth and stone (Wth 9m; H 0.8m) with an intervening, very wide, deep, waterlogged fosse (Wth 14.6m; D 3.7m), an outer bank (Wth 9.3m; H 2.2m) and an outer fosse (Wth 5.2m; D 0.9m). This feature is named ‘Rampart’ on the OS 6-inch maps. To the SW the remains of cultivation ridges are probably the result of post-medieval ploughing (O'Conor and De Meulemeester 2007, 90). An Anglo-Norman castle (LF014-071002-) was built immediately to the N. (Westropp 1902, 712; Orpen 1910, 223 5; McNamee 1940c, 81; English 1971, 152) Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 26 March 2012

• LF014-071002 Castle - Anglo-Norman masonry castle
  Description

  According to Orpen (1910, 224), this castle was located 'to the immediate north of the mote' (LF014-071001-). In 1377 the annals recorded that the castle of ‘Lis-ard-abhla was erected by John O’Ferrall, Lord of Annaly’ (AFM, vol. 3, 669). In 1417 ‘Lissardowlin Castle outside the bawn [LF014-071004-] was burned’ (Ann. Conn., 437). Depicted in the townland of Lisnedila on the Down Survey (1655-6) map of Templemichael parish (NLI, MS 719), in the area where the motte is located. In 1891 it was described as ‘a few crumbling old walls at the foot of the moat’ and it was noted that the ‘ruins of the castle ... prove it to have been a large and important erection’ but ‘nearly all the main portions of the structure, which was in a tolerable state of preservation up to some short time ago, have been removed’ (Farrell 1891, 303). By 1910 only the foundations were traceable (Orpen ibid.). Not visible at ground level. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 13 December 2012

• LF014-071003 Field boundary
  Description

  At the motte and bailey castle at Lissardowlan (LF014-071001-). Bradley et al. (1985, 32) recorded a narrow raised area running from the S of the motte to the modern road c. 110m S. This is not marked on any ed. of the OS 6-inch map but its outline (Wth 2.3, H 0.1m) is still identifiable, albeit intermittently, in the field as a low linear feature. Although Bradley et al. (ibid.) postulated that this may have been part of an old roadway. However, O'Conor and De Meulemeester (2007, 90) believed it to be the remains of a plough head, associated with ridge-and-furrow cultivation and dating to the post-medieval period. This feature appears to be part of the enclosing element of a small field to the SW of the motte and bailey containing ridge and furrow ridges. The ridges can be seen extending down the slope from NE to SW and are contained within a small field, the boundary bank of which can be seen on the E and S sides. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 26 August 2011

• LF014-071004 Bawn
  Description

  The existence of a bawn at Lissardowlan is attested from the documentary sources. In 1417 the Annals of Connacht record that ‘Lissardowlin Castle (LF014-071002-) outside the bawn was burned’ (Ann. Conn., 437) and it is mentioned in a land grant, dated 1609, as ‘the castle, bawne, town and lands of Lisserdawle otherwise Lisserdowle (Lissardowlin)’ (Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I, 145). There are no visible remains of any bawn at Lissardowlan and it seems likely that this may be equated with the bailey attached to the motte (LF014-071001-). Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 13 December 2012

Architectural heritage

No building of the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage stands in the townland of Lissardowlan.

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

At the centre of the townland of Lissardowlan, about 1 in 10 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 low, partly inferred.

Terrain model

No LiDAR survey of the Office of Public Works covers the centre of the townland of Lissardowlan.

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.

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

Name

Lissardowlan · Lios Ard Abhla

Area

623,644 m² (62.36 ha, 154.11 acres)

Civil parish

Templemichael, and its townlands

Barony

Ardagh

Electoral division

Corboy, the unit of the census

Census 2022

420 people lived in 151 households in the Corboy electoral division. 90% of households owned their home. 28% of homes were built since 2001. 11% of dwellings stood vacant on census night, and 0% were holiday homes.

Neighbouring townlands

Agharickard, Aghnacally Glebe, Cartron Little, Cloonahard, Cloonahussey, Cooleeny, Freehalman

Placenames

Lissardowlan 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.