Coolamber

Area

572,940 m² (57.29 ha, 141.58 acres)

Buildings

1 building touches it, 277 m² on the ground

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

Coolamber

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.

• LF016-018001 House - fortified house
  Description

  Within the interior of a possible early medieval ringwork (LF016-018003-) that was subsequently reused as a bawn (LF016-018002-). Possibly the residence of Thomas Nugent, one of the commissioners for Plantation of Longford in 1620 (Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I, 469). Described by Lewis (1837, vol. 2, 581) as ‘the ruins of an old castle, which was beseiged by Oliver Cromwell, it formed the boundary of the English Pale’. This fortified house (overall ext. dims. 23.3m N–S; 10.75m E–W) consisted of a two-storey block with an adjoining four-storey tower at its N end. Only fragmentary remains of the walls (max. H 2m) of the two-storey block (approx. int. dims. 16m N–S; 7.5m E–W; wall T 1.6m) survive. Springers in the external face of the S wall of the tower indicate that there was a barrel vault over its ground floor, probably covering the area over the entrance chamber. There would have been another room to the S of this. No trace of the original doorway survives but it may have been in the E wall where there is a large breach opposite the causewayed entrance into the bawn. No architectural features survive. A scar line noted on the external face of the S wall of the tower in 1975 (SMR file) indicates that the roof over this block was gabled. The N and E walls of the tower (ext. dims. 10.6m E–W; 5.6m N–S) survive to wall-walk level, while the W end of the S wall and the W wall have collapsed. The internal face of the N wall is partially covered in ivy at second- and third-floor levels. A base-batter is evident and alternating quoins stones are punch dressed. There is a barrel vault over the ground floor (int. dims. 8.5m E–W; 3.4m N–S; wall T 1m); joist-holes above this in the N and S walls indicate that all the other floors were wooden. A blocked-up doorway, located off-centre to the W in the S wall, gave access to the ground floor of the adjoining block of the house. Another blocked-up doorway near the S end of the W wall led to a mural stairs in the W wall, which accessed the spiral stairs in the NW angle. Apart from a curve in the wall face, indicating its location, no trace of the spiral stairs survives. It was lit by narrow, flat and ogee-headed windows. A chamber (int. dims. 7m E–W; 3m N–S; wall T 1m) on the first floor was lit by an ogee-headed slit ope in the NE angle, flanked by a gun loop to the W, and by a centrally located window in the E wall as well as one off–centre to the W in the N wall. A broken-out fireplace in the centre of the N wall is a fine cut-stone example, with chamfered, punch-dressed jambs and lamp brackets on either side of the destroyed joggle-jointed lintel. A destroyed doorway in the SE angle accessed the first floor of the adjoining block. Remains of broken-out centrally located windows are also visible on the ground, second and third floors of the E wall. Those on the second and third floors consist of flat-headed, single lights. Single lights in the centre of the N wall at second-floor level and off-centre to the E on the third floor are now partially ivy covered. Immediately to the E of the example on the second floor an external chimneystack was carried on two corbels that are visible on the external wall face. The punch-dressed quoins, fireplaces, ogee-headed angle loops, gun loop and flat-headed limestone windows suggest that this house dates to the late 16th/ early 17th-century. A church (LF016-015001-) and graveyard (LF016-015002-) lie c. 475m to the NW. (Moore 2007, No. 21) Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 27 September 2012

• LF016-018002 Bawn
  Description

  Associated with a fortified house (LF016-018002-), which lies in the NW quadrant of the interior. This almost circular bawn (int. dims. 39m N–S; 38m E–W; wall T 0.95m; Wall H 0.3m) is built around the perimeter of the platform of a possible ringwork (LF016-018003-). Its outline is indicated by wall-footings and there is evidence of a possible rectangular mural or garderobe tower projecting out from the bawn wall at SW. It is unclear whether the platform, fortified house and bawn are of contemporary date or whether the platform is an earlier ringwork that was subsequently refortified. Compiled by: Patrick F. O'Donovan Date of upload: 4 January 2012

• LF016-018003 Castle - ringwork
  Description

  On a low rise in wet pasture with good views in all directions; adjacent to the Longford/Westmeath county border. A raised circular platform (diam. c. 40m) defined by a scarp (H 2-4m) and an external fosse (top Wth 8m; base Wth 2m; ext. D 0.8-1.7m) with a causewayed entrance (Wth 3m; L 10m) at ESE. A NW-SE running road cuts the NE quadrant, destroying the fosse from N-NNE-NE. A late-16th/early 17th-century fortified house (LF016-018001-) is situated in the interior and its associated bawn (LF016-018002-) is evident on the perimeter of the platform. It is unclear whether the platform, house and bawn are of contemporary date or whether the platform is an earlier ringwork that was subsequently refortified. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 10 April 2012

• WM002-013 Ringfort - rath
  Description

  Situated on a gentle SSW facing slope on good pasture-land, 50m E of a stream, with moderate views of the surrounding countryside. Coolamber Castle (LF016-018001-) 500m to NNW, wayside cross (WM002-037----) 370m to N. A sub-circular shaped area (diam. 36m) defined by an earthen bank mainly reduced to a scarp, with wide deep U-shaped fosse and substantial earthen bank with wide U-shaped external fosse and possible traces of a third earthen bank best preserved at W. Original entrance feature not identified, gap at SE may be modern rather than an original entrance feature. There are several modern gaps in the enclosing banks which are now covered with trees and scrub vegetation. The interior is fairly even, sloping appreciably from N to S. Cultivation ridges aligned NNW-SSE run across the interior of the ringfort. Some straight earthen banks radiate from the site, it is difficult to say whether or not they are coeval with the ringfort. These linear features are visible on Digital Globe aerial photographs taken November 2011 and appear to be the remains of drainage ditches feeding into the nearby stream. See attached profile of monument surveyed and drawn by the ASI. Compiled by: Frank Coyne & Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 23 November 2016

• WM002-037 Cross - Wayside cross
  Description

  In a grove of trees which encloses a private burial ground of late 19th century date, this burial ground is enclosed within a stone wall which is surround by a grove of trees in which the wayside cross is located. The private burial ground is 40m to the south-east of the cross. Coolamber Castle (LF016-018----) in Co. Longford located 250m to the W. The remains of a 17th century Latin cross (L 1.7m; Wth 0.34m; T 0.2m) can be seen lying on the ground in two broken sections. This cross with its poorly preserved inscription carved in false relief , is now very weathered and in places the inscription is illegible. This cross was recorded in 1864 by Du Noyer (George Victor Du Noyer, “Monumental cross from the summit of a gravel mound East of and close to the old castle of Coolamber. Co. Longford. Geo: V. Du Noyer. 22 July 1864,” Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, accessed January 23, 2020, http://rsai.locloudhosting.net/items/show/23546) when the monument was intact and the inscription was better preserved (Anon. 1895, 106). This article mistakenly identified this cross as being located in the adjoining county of Longford the boundary of which is only 135m to the W. According to this article the 'monumental cross, [was] seven feet high, near the old Castle of Coolamber in this county' and located 'in a grove of trees' (Anon. 1895, 106). The following inscription was recorded by Du Noyer as 'I.N./A. S./ I.H.S./PRAY FOR T[HE SO] VLS OF THO/MAS/NVG/ENT/DEC/ED 12/JAN/1688/AND/OF RO/SE TY/RELL/HIS/WIFE' (Anon. 1895, 106). The top of the cross which bore the letters I. N. A. S. no longer survives and only fragments of the I. H. S. monogram survives. The date 1688 appears to be incorrect and should read 1638 as indicated on the photograph (MacGivney 1908, 78; Walsh 1957, 39). The grove of trees in which the cross is located is indicated on the 1837 edition of the OS 6-inch map. On this map the private burial ground is not indicated. Compiled & revised by: Caimin O'Brien Date of revised upload: 28 November 2016

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

About 1 in 10 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

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

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.

Download this parcel: DXF, in Irish Transverse Mercator metres, with its neighbours and buildings, for a drawing program; GeoJSON, in WGS 84, for a map; KML, for 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.