Bryanmore Upper

25 registered freehold parcels lie mostly in Bryanmore Upper, from 504 m² to 159,880 m² (15.99 ha, 39.51 acres). The dashed line is the townland's boundary; 16 neighbouring parcels touch it.

No zone of a development plan covers Bryanmore Upper 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.

• 24 Mar 2023Conditional

  construction of a slatted shed for cattle, a stables, a roofed manure pit and ancillary works (extension of existing farm road, concrete yards, effluent tank etc) in new farmyard area,using existing farm road and entrance onto public road

  Permission · Westmeath County Council, 2336

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 Bryanmore Upper.

Recorded monuments

• WM023-057 Ringfort - rath
  Description

  Situated on a slight WNW-facing slope, in gently undulating pasture with excellent views to WSW, W, and N. Lady Well (WM023-089----) 60m to SSE. Monument described in 1971 a roughly circular-shaped area (dims. 34m NW-SE; 33m NE-SW) enclosed by a poorly preserved earthen bank that is much disturbed and almost reduced to a scarp. The original entrance is not recognisable and there is no definite trace of an external fosse. The interior has a gentle ESE-facing slope and several humps and hollows which are due to disturbance. There is a post-1700 quarry hole adjacent to NE. Modern house and garden plot built into N quadrant of enclosure which is visible on Digital Globe aerial photographs. See attached profile of monument which was surveyed and drawn by the ASI Compiled by Alison McQueen, Vera Rahilly and Caimin O’Brien. Date of upload: 25 July 2019

• WM023-059 Ringfort - rath
  Description

  Situated on a slight rise, in undulating pasture, with good views to NW, N and SE. Monument described in 1971 and 1976 as a subcircular-shaped area (dims. 41.3m NE-SW; 35.3m NW-SE) enclosed by an earth and stone bank with external fosse best preserved at S and almost completely infilled elsewhere. The original entrance is not recognisable. The interior rises slightly from the perimeter towards the centre. The monument has been quarried in places on the exterior from ENE-SE. A modern field boundary encloses the monument from S-W-N-NE. Compiled by Alison McQueen, Vera Rahilly and Caimin O’Brien. Date of upload: 29 July 2019

• WM023-070 Castle - ringwork
  Description

  Situated on the W side of a high rise, in pasture, with good views to W, NW and S. The Down Survey map of Drumraney depicts a tower house type castle (WM023-070001-) in Bryanmore [Brinemore] townland on or close to site of ‘The Breen’ (NLI, MS 723-4). On this map the castle is depicted standing on lands belonging in 1640 to John Dillon who is listed as an 'Irish papist' (ibid.). Depicted on the 1837 OS six-inch map as a circular-shaped enclosure outlined by two concentric lines with two buildings in the centre of the enclosure. One of these building is annotated ‘Sterns Folly’ with a circular shaped earthwork or mound immediately depicted to the E of the building. The annotation ‘The Breen’ appears to refer to the circular-shaped enclosure. This earthwork may have been a circular shaped bawn or courtyard of the castle of Bryanmore (WM023-070001-), annotated as 'The Breen' on six inch OS maps. Monument described in 1971 and 1979 as a roughly circular-shaped area enclosed by an earth and stone bank, an intervening fosse and an outer bank. The outer bank incorporates large stones which may be those referred to by O’Donovan (OSNB 1837) when he recorded that ‘there was originally a circle of large stones surrounding the fort'. The entrance to the interior is at SSE. A stone-faced rectangular depression in the NE quadrant appears to be a cellar or foundation of a building, which may be the remains of the tower house or Bryanmore Castle. A bank running N-S traverses the interior and there is a mound in the E quadrant with the ruins of a stone structure on top which may be the remains of Stern’s folly. Field banks and walls abut the exterior of the monument at N, NE, S and W. The remains of a small subrectangular house site (WM023-070002-) are visible outside the monument at SE. The remains of a road of uncertain antiquity are preserved in the field boundary 80m S of the enclosure. Well preserved bivallate enclosure with remains of stone buildings standing inside large field defined by well preserved field banks visible today on Digital Globe aerial photographs. These field banks enclosing the castle site and earthworks may be the remains of medieval field boundaries. Possibly the remains of a medieval castle and bawn that was reused as a landscape feature or folly in the post-1700 period by the Stearne family. According to Cox (1972, 22-25), in 600 AD, there was an ancient hostel site on Bryanmore Hill in Drumraney parish located midway between Ballymore and Athlone. The hostel is known as ‘Bruighean da Choga’ or ‘Da Choga’s Hostel’. In 1837 the Ordnance Survey identified this earthwork as the site of ‘Bruighean da Choga’ and described it as following; 'It is a fort of earth 204 paces in circumference and containing within it the ruins of castle [WM023-070001-] the erection of which tradition ascribes to the Dillons, who were lords of Cuircneach from the period of the English invasion. This castle is now a formless mass of ruins, but the fathers of the present old natives remembered to have seen a considerable portion of it standing, which was used as a fine ball-alley and visited by the best ball players then in Ireland, England and America!' (OSL Drumraney parish, Vol. 1, 37-8). It is possible that this enclosure could have been a cashel that was pre-Norman in date and was then refortified in the medieval period by the construction of a stone castle inside the enclosure which was later reused as a landscape feature by the Stern family. Compiled by Alison McQueen, Vera Rahilly and Caimin O’Brien. Date of upload: 29 July 2019

• WM023-070001 Castle - unclassified
  Description

  Situated on the W side of a high rise, in pasture, with good views to W, NW and S. The Down Survey map of Drumraney depicts a tower house type castle in Bryanmore [Brinemore] townland on or close to site of ‘The Breen’ (NLI, MS 723-4). On this map the castle is depicted standing on lands belonging in 1640 to John Dillon who is listed as an 'Irish papist' (ibid.). Depicted on the 1837 OS six-inch map as a circular-shaped enclosure ((WM023-070001-) outlined by two concentric lines with two buildings in the centre of the enclosure. One of these building is annotated ‘Sterns Folly’ with a circular shaped earthwork or mound immediately depicted to the E of the building. The annotation ‘The Breen’ appears to refer to the circular-shaped enclosure. This earthwork may have been a circular shaped bawn or courtyard of the castle of Bryanmore, annotated as 'The Breen' on six inch OS maps. Monument described in 1971 and 1979 as a roughly circular-shaped area enclosed by an earth and stone bank, an intervening fosse and an outer bank with entrance gap at SSE. A stone-faced rectangular depression in the NE quadrant appears to be a cellar or foundation of a building, which may be the remains of the tower house or Bryanmore Castle. A bank running N-S traverses the interior and there is a mound in the E quadrant with the ruins of a stone structure on top which may be the remains of Stern’s folly. Field banks and walls abut the exterior of the monument at N, NE, S and W. The remains of a small subrectangular house site (WM023-070002-) are visible outside the monument at SE. The remains of a road of uncertain antiquity are preserved in the field boundary 80m S of the enclosure. Well preserved bivallate enclosure with remains of stone buildings standing inside large field defined by well preserved field banks visible today on Digital Globe aerial photographs. These field banks enclosing the castle site and earthworks may be the remains of medieval field boundaries. Possibly the remains of a medieval castle and bawn that was reused as a landscape feature or folly in the post-1700 period by the Stearne family. According to Cox (1972, 22-25), in 600 AD, there was an ancient hostel site on Bryanmore Hill in Drumraney parish located midway between Ballymore and Athlone. The hostel is known as ‘Bruighean da Choga’ or ‘Da Choga’s Hostel’. In 1837 the Ordnance Survey identified this earthwork as the site of ‘Bruighean da Choga’ and described it as following; 'It is a fort of earth 204 paces in circumference and containing within it the ruins of castle [WM023-070001-] the erection of which tradition ascribes to the Dillons, who were lords of Cuircneach from the period of the English invasion. This castle is now a formless mass of ruins, but the fathers of the present old natives remembered to have seen a considerable portion of it standing, which was used as a fine ball-alley and visited by the best ball players then in Ireland, England and America!' (OSL Drumraney parish, Vol. 1, 37-8). It is possible that this enclosure could be pre-Norman in date and was then refortified in the medieval period by the construction of a stone castle inside the enclosure which was later reused as a landscape feature by the Stern family. Compiled by Alison McQueen, Vera Rahilly and Caimin O’Brien. Date of upload: 29 July 2019

• WM023-070002 House - indeterminate date
  Description

  Situated on the W side of a high rise, in pasture, with good views to W, NW and S. The Down Survey Parish map of Drumraney depicts a castle (WM023-070001-) in Bryanmore townland on or close to site of ‘The Breen’. Outside the earthwork on the SE is the remains of a small subrectangular house site. Compiled by: Alison McQueen, Vera Rahilly and Caimin O’Brien. Date of upload: 30 July 2019

• WM023-089 Ritual site - holy well
  Description

  Possible holy well annotated 'Lady Well' in gothic script on 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload; 25 July 2019

Architectural heritage

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

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).

No address of the register names Bryanmore Upper with five sales or more. The sales of the area are on the page of Co. Westmeath.

Name

Bryanmore Upper

Area

466,639 m² (46.66 ha, 115.31 acres)

Civil parish

Drumraney, and its townlands

Barony

Kilkenny West

Electoral division

Ardnagragh, the unit of the census

Neighbouring townlands

Bryanmore Lower, Carrickaneha, Cloghbreen, Fairfield, Killininneen, Kiltober, Oldtown Or Puddingstreet

Placenames

Bryanmore Upper on logainm.ie, the Placenames Database of Ireland

Townlands, civil parishes, baronies and electoral divisions, National Statutory Boundaries, Tailte Éireann, 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.