Millcastle

21 registered freehold parcels lie mostly in Millcastle, from 822 m² to 280,465 m² (28.05 ha, 69.3 acres). The dashed line is the townland's boundary; 23 neighbouring parcels touch it.

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

No zone of a development plan covers Millcastle 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.

No planning application touches the townland of Millcastle 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 the townland of Millcastle.

Recorded monuments

• WM003-065 Ringfort - rath
  Description

  Situated on gently rising grassland with good views to the N. The E half of this ringfort has been levelled. All that remains is a slightly raised area (approx. diam. 40m) sloping slightly from WNW-ESE, enclosed by an arc of earth and stone bank visible from S-W-N (max. H 1m; max. Wth 3.6m). See attached profile of monument surveyed and drawn by the ASI. Compiled by: Frank Coyne and Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 22 May 2017

• WM003-066 Castle - tower house
  Description

  Situated on at N end of low ridge with River Glore 70m to N and possible mill race now dried up 40m to N as depicted on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map. Motte and bailey castle (WM003-070----) and wayside cross (WM003-069---) 290m to N, building (WM006-066001-) annotated as ‘Tower’ in gothic script on 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map 90m to SSE. Depicted as a multi-storey tower with two storey house with gable chimney stack built onto one side of the tower on the 1657 Down Survey map of Fore barony (NLI, MS 723-4). The terrier of the 1657 Down Survey map of Rathgarve parish lists Richard Nugent, Earl of Westmeath, as the owner of the lands of Millcastle in 1641 (ibid.). In 1837 the Ordnance Survey Letters recorded that in Millcastle there was ‘to be seen in good preservation the ruins of a castle which gave name to the townland. It is situated on the south side of the River Glore, and near stood originally a mill (WM003-066002-) which gave it name, but of that not even the site can now be pointed out. Not far from the ruin of Millcastle is a square tower (WM003-066001-) evidently of the same age and style with the castle itself’ (O’Flanagan 1931, 103). Poorly preserved remains of a rectangular-shaped tower house (approx. ext. dims. 10.65m E-W; wall T 1.25m) of which only the NW wall (ext. L 10.65m) and approximately half of the NE & SW walls (ext. L of W wall 5.6m) survive. Built of rough undressed limestone blocks, laid in irregular courses. The corners of the tower are rounded externally and the walls are battered at the base. The NW wall stands two storeys high with springers of a stone vault visible at first floor level. There are a number of irregular openings in the walls which probably mark the location of windows. One small plain rectangular ope survives in the NW wall near the N corner. What may be the remains of a chimney flue can be seen in the SW corner. There are the remains of a narrow mural stairs in the NW corner now blocked up. To the E & SE of the castle old banks extend across the field forming a number of enclosures (WM003-066002-). Some of these earthworks are quite irregular and are very poorly preserved. An old roadway runs along the W & NW sides of the castle. The roadway crosses a dried up water-channel possibly an old mill-race via an old bridge. This water channel running from E-W was diverted from the River Glore via a cut in the SW side of the river 100m NE of the castle. The water-channel or millrace is clearly visible on Digital Globe aerial photographs taken November 2011. Compiled by: Frank Coyne & Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 5 December 2016

• WM003-066001 Bawn
  Description

  Situated on flat pasture-land with tower house (WM003-006----) 90m to NNW, River Glore 130m to N and possible mill race now dried up 105m to N as depicted on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map. Motte and bailey castle (WM003-070----) and wayside cross (WM003-069---) 290m to N. In 1837 the Ordnance Survey Letters recorded that in Millcastle there was ‘to be seen in good preservation the ruins of a castle (wm003-066----) which gave name to the townland. It is situated on the south side of the River Glore, and near stood originally a mill (WM003-066002-) which gave it name, but of that not even the site can now be pointed out. Not far from the ruin of Millcastle is a square tower evidently of the same age and style with the castle itself’ (O’Flanagan 1931, 103). Depicted as 'Tower' on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map. Only the grass covered remains of a small rectangular-shaped tower (dims. 7m N-S; 5m E-W) survives. The building was rectangular in plan with its long axis aligned N-S and with gaps visible on E, W & NE sides. The wall footings this tower are now grassed over. The interior is lower than the surrounding field level. This may be possibly due to digging within tower where some loose stones are visible. There is very little indication of stone facing. At NE there is considerable mounding, and the ground falls away due to possible collapse. Wall footings are best preserved at S. To the NE of the tower is a large rectangular enclosure enclosed by an earthen bank with an external fosse at on the W. This bank is best preserved on the W & N, and is faint on the E & S. There are further earthworks or enclosures and banks visible between the tower and castle which are visible on Digital Globe aerial photographs. Some of these earthworks are quite irregular and are very poorly preserved. It is possible that this tower which was described in the OS Letters as being contemporaneous in date with the nearby tower house represents the angle tower on a bawn associated with Millcastle (WM003-006----). A water channel running from E-W was diverted from the River Glore via a cut in the SW side of the river 100m NNE of the tower. The water-channel or millrace is clearly visible on Digital Globe aerial photographs taken November 2011. Compiled by: Frank Coyne & Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 5 December 2016

• WM003-066002 Mill - unclassified
  Description

  Situated on flat pasture-land with Millcastle (WM003-006----) 40m S of mill-race, River Glore 30m to N of possible mill race now dried as depicted on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map. Motte and bailey castle (WM003-070----) and wayside cross (WM003-069---) 290m to N. A water channel running from E-W was diverted from the River Glore via a cut in the SW side of the river 100m NNE of the castle (WM003-006---). The water-channel or millrace is clearly visible on Digital Globe aerial photographs taken November 2011. The precise location of the watermill operating off this millrace has not been identified however the earthworks visible on Digital Globe aerial photographs may be related to the mill or the adjoining tower house. In 1837 the Ordnance Survey Letters recorded that in Millcastle there was ‘to be seen in good preservation the ruins of a castle (WM003-066----) which gave name to the townland. It is situated on the south side of the River Glore, and near stood originally a mill which gave it name, but of that not even the site can now be pointed out. Not far from the ruin of Millcastle is a square tower (WM003-066001-) evidently of the same age and style with the castle itself’ (O’Flanagan 1931, 103). Compiled by: Frank Coyne & Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 5 December 2016

• WM003-067 Mound
  Description

  Situated on top of a small hill in grassland with excellent views of Lough Glore to E. Tower house (WM003-066----) and bawn (WM003-066001-) 300m to NW, respectively. An irregular shaped mound of stones, now grass-covered with no clearly defined kerb features. Possibly the result of field clearance. Not marked as any antiquity on any edition of the OS 6-inch maps. Doubtful antiquity, may be the remains of a post-1700 field clearance cairn. Compiled by: Frank Coyne and Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 22 May 2017

Architectural heritage

• Stonestown Bridge, bridge, 1870–1880 · Regional interest
  Description

  Single-arched road bridge over River Glore, dated 1877. Constructed using coursed rock-faced limestone rubble with rusticated rock-faced limestone voussoirs and rusticated coping over parapet. Located to the north of Castlepollard.

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

About 1 in 10 homes in this area is likely to have high radon levels. Testing a home

Landslides

Susceptibility moderately low, low, low (inferred), on the 1:50,000 map.

Terrain model

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

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.

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

Name

Millcastle

Area

926,509 m² (92.65 ha, 228.95 acres)

Civil parish

Rathgarve, and its townlands

Barony

Fore

Electoral division

Fore West, the unit of the census

Census 2022

Fore West electoral division: 404 people in 146 households; 86% of households own their home; 30% of homes were built since 2001; 13% of dwellings stood vacant on census night, and 3% were holiday homes.

Neighbouring townlands

Freaghmore, Gilbertstown, Knockroe, Martinstown, Rathgarve, Stonestown

Placenames

Millcastle 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.