Mortarstown Lower

Area

118,775 m² (11.88 ha, 29.35 acres)

Buildings

No building touches it.

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

Mortarstown Lower

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

• Special Area of Conservation: River Barrow and River Nore SAC 002162

Recorded monuments around it

This parcel is in the zone of notification of 2 recorded monuments.

• CW007-033 Castle - tower house
  Description

  Sited at a former important crossing point of River Barrow. According to the OS Letters (1837-40, 128-9), ‘the castle ‘was built sometime in the 15th century by the Butlers, Earl of Ormond, and whose descendant, Richard Butler, during the Irish Rebellion, kept here a garrison for the King, which being on the point of being besieged by the Irish was relieved by James, 12th Earl of Ormond, and Duke; and whose son, Richard Butler, was in 1662 created Baron Butler of Clogrennan and afterwards Earl of Arran. The Castle came in subsequent periods into the possession of the Rochfort family, who built a house in the modern style, not far from the old mansion, which was suffered to decay, there being only at present two or three apartments tenantable, but which are pleasantly situated on the River, commanding an extensive view of the distant country’ (O’Flanagan ed. 1934, 34-5). There is a contemporary account of the attack on, and taking of, the castle by Sir Peter Carew in 1589 (Maclean 1857, 92-3). A sketch by Thomas Dinely (1680) shows a large house of four storeys with an attic level, three decorative gables at front, crenellated parapet at sides and two substantial chimney stacks and a lower building, at least four-bays long to the N. Another sketch drawn a century later (Grose 1791, vol. 2, 10-11, plate 79), c. 1790 shows a ruinous three or four storey square tower S of the gate and projecting forward of it. The lower portion, with a large window with grille in the E face, may still have been habitable as according to Grose (ibid.), the castle, ‘is now a beautiful and romantic ruin…covered with ivy, and part is fitted up for a porter’s lodge’. The upper portion has partially collapsed, only the battlemented W wall surviving to full height. There is another large window opening in the E face over the lower window and separated from it by a string-course, however, this level appears to be ruinous. Also visible on this sketch is another tower to the NW, obscured by vegetation but which was square in plan, surmounted by a circular battlemented turret. In 1806 work commenced on Clogrenan House, located 600m to the SW, and the former 'castle' was transformed into an entrance way to the demesne. Grose’s sketch appears to be fairly accurate, being similar to a photograph taken in 1870. It was described in some detail in 1911 as consisting of, ‘a main tower probably some 60ft. high on the south connected by a high screen wall (in which the pointed arch gateway occurs) with the northern angle. This angle is finished on top by a machicolated turret. The buildings are roofless and little more than a shell forming the entrance to the ground of the square modern house which stands about ¼ mile away up the avenue. The main tower abuts on the public road in an obstructive mannor at S.E. angle. …The walls are about 4 ft. [1.2m] thick, built of limestone plastered with mortar the cutstone being granite. There are traces of brick strings thus [a sketch shows a protruding string with hollow moulding]. Most of the opes have been built up, those not so treated being chiefly in front and having sharp pointed arches with traces of square Tudor label mouldings over; which appear to indicate that the present opes are not those originally formed. The cut stone details are poor, the window in Tower (marked [on plan] 13 ft. [c. 4m] up) has been filled in with early tracery as sketch. There is a similar ope over it but blank. The gateway is surmounted by a similar pointed arch with a very coarse bead all round. This gate is of open timber work the tympanum being filled in with gothic tracery in timber in a defective state. The jambs of the traceried window inside have been studded out with lath and plaster and an enriched pattern thus has been put round and the remains of a similar plaster fringe without the panel enrichment is to be seen on the adjoining walls. Serious cracks occur in the masonry, particularly in the high walls of the Tower that on north side of same extending nearly from top to bottom and the masonry at the top is very loose. The masonry is in bad condition and requires extensive repair to render it secure. The interior is ruinous there are large trees inside the premises and the roofless building may be described as a mere shell’ (OPW topographical files, 22 September 1911). The accompanying plan shows the two towers (S tower ext. dims. c. 7.9m N-S; c. 6.8m E-W; int. dims. c. 16.3m N-S; c. 5.5m E-W; N tower ext. dims. c. 6.8m N-S; c. 9m E-W; no wall thicknesses given) with a wall (L c. 11.4m), presumably a bawn wall, extending westward from the SW angle with only a short length (L c. 1.5m; T c. 1.2m) of the returning N-S wall surviving. Part of the castle collapsed in a storm in 1931 and having become unsafe was further demolished by the County Council (OPW topographical files; Fitzmaurice 1966, vol. 15, 18). The pointed gateway (Wth 3m; H c. 4.5m) with granite roll-moulded surround, which is likely to be contemporary with the house built in 1806, still survives within a roughly coursed limestone rubble wall which survives for a short length on either side (L 4m to S; 7m to N; wall T 1.42-1.5m; max. H c. 5.5m). The wall is surmounted by a projecting limestone string-course, which on a photograph taken in the 1950s (Anon. 1984-5, vol. 2, 11), had the remains of further walling on top, possibly battlemented. There is a base-batter (H 1.26m; Wth 0.3m) on the external N face which may be a remnant of the medieval castle. A moat may also have formed part of the castles defences. This appears on the 1st (1839) ed. OS 6-inch map as an L-shaped ditch and on subsequent editions as a curving ditch (L c. 40m) running northward from the NW angle of the N tower and curving north-eastward towards the River Barrow, terminating in a bridge at the road. Preservation Order number: 3/1995. See attached photographs: CW007-033----_01 Exterior from E CW007-033----_02 Detail of roll-moulding N side of gateway CW007-033----_03 Interior from NW CW007-033----_04 Interior from NNW CW007-033----_05 Detail of soffit Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 3 December 2018 This monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 3/1995).

• LA037-008 Castle - tower house
  Description

  On the Laois-Carlow border. Sited at a former important crossing point on the River Barrow. Sketch by Thomas Dineley (1680) shows a large house of five floors, with three decorative gables at the front and crenellated parapet at the sides. Sketch dated 1790 shows ruins in remarkably similar condition to a photograph taken in 1870. Derelict buildings were surveyed in 1911, a major part of which collapsed or were demolished in 1931. The original castle was probably rebuilt after Carew's seige of 1569. Present 'Gothic' style arch and windows probably belong to the late eighteenth century refurbishment. In 1806 work commenced on Clogrenan House and the former 'castle' was transformed into the entrance way to the demesne. Unlikely that much of fifteenth or sixteenth century survived to 1911. Some overgrown foundations still survive, including a small portion of the entrance way, all of which appear to belong to the eighteenth century refurbishment. (JRSAI 1862-3, 43; JKAS 1915-17, 56-62; OPW file). The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Laois' (Dublin Stationery Office, 1995) compiled by P. David Sweetman, Olive Alcock and Bernie Moran. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 17 December 2007 This monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 3/1995).

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 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

LiDAR of the Office of Public Works, flown in 2011, at 2 m: tile OPW_2408 (ZIP).

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.