Mount Temple

Area

3,717 m² (0.37 ha, 0.92 acres)

Buildings

5 buildings touch it, 803 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

Mount Temple

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.

• WM030-045 Graveyard
  Description

  The remains of an unclassified castle site (WM030-038----) possibly Ballyloughloe Castle are located 270m to the N and an Anglo-Norman motte and bailey castle (WM030-047----) is located 80m to the E. A lake known as Lough Luatha from which the placename Ballyloughloe is derived is located immediately N of the castle site (WM030-038----). The graveyard in the townland of Labaun is known today as Mount Temple graveyard and was formerly known as Ballyloughloe graveyard, it was described in 1983 as following: ‘The remains of a roughly rectangular graveyard (dims. 64m N-S; 95m NE-SW), enclosed by a poorly preserved stone wall. Within the graveyard are many 19th and 20th century grave stones. The entire interior of the graveyard is very badly overgrown with undergrowth and vegetation, nettles etc. Part of the remains of a collapsed post-medieval C of I church (Holy Trinity) can be made out, though it is badly obscured by vegetation cover. A short section of the N wall of the levelled medieval church remains upstanding 9m to the S of the ruins of the C of I church. The graveyard also contains an Early Christian cross-inscribed slab (WM030-046----) with a Goidelic inscription that has been incorporated into the S face of the N wall of the medieval church (WM030-045001-). Mount Temple House and farmyard are the adjoining property which forms the boundary with the graveyard along SW side. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 6 March 2014

• WM030-045001 Church
  Description

  The remains of an unclassified castle site (WM030-038----) possibly Ballyloughloe Castle are located 270m to the N and an Anglo-Norman motte and bailey castle (WM030-047----) is located 80m to the E. A lake known as Lough Luatha from which Ballyloughloe is derived is located immediately N of the castle site (WM030-048----). The 1302-06 ecclesiastical taxation of the diocese of Clonmacnoise records that the ‘Rector de Loghloch [Ballyloughloe]’ owed 20s. in this year (Cal. doc. Ire., 216). The medieval church of Ballyloughloe was dedicated to the Holy Trinity. In 1405 the annals recorded that ‘Baile Locha Luatha [Ballyloughloe] was burned by Ó Maoil Sheachlainn , i.e. Cormac Óg son of Cormac Ballach, and the church was burned too, and inumerable valuables were destroyed, including the image of the Trinity’ (Ó hInnse 1947, 177). In 1426 there is a reference to the parish church of the Trinity of Lochluacha (Ballyloughloe) (Costello 1909, 143). In 1451 a papal letter was sent ‘To the prior of St. Mary's, Dermach [Durrow] [in the diocese of Meath]. Mandate, as below. Lately the present pope, at the petition of Fergallus Yglasderag, priest, of the diocese of Clonmacnoise (Cluanen.)—containing that John bishop of Clonmacnoise (seeing that the parish of the parish church, of the patronage of laymen, of Lochluacha [Ballyloughloe] in the said diocese, was so large that the people thereof could not, on account of the excessive distance and the dangers of the roads, conveniently and safely go to the said church for divine offices; and that the said church, which has two other daughter churches, had abundant means for the maintenance of several perpetual vicarages) divided, with consent of the dean and chapter of Clonmacnoise, the said church into three perpetual vicarages, namely, the said mother church of Lochluacha [Ballyloughloe], a second of Athluain [Athlone WM029-042021-], and a third of Kyllomyleon [Kilcleagh WM036-009----], and deprived and removed Thady Magruayrg and Maurice Macedagayn, priests, of the dioceses of Meath and Clonmacnoise, who had simoniacally divided the said vicarage between them—ordered certain judges, if they found the said division lawful, to confirm it by papal authority, and in that event to collate and assign, of the said vicarages, to which no vicars had yet been instituted, that of Lochluacha [Ballyloughloe] to the above Fergal’ (Cal. papal letters. vol. 10, 541). The church site and graveyard (WM030-045----) were described in 1983 as following: ‘The remains of a roughly rectangular graveyard, enclosed by a stone wall. The entire interior of the graveyard is very badly overgrown with undergrowth and vegetation, nettles etc. Part of the remains of a collapsed rectangular church [Holy Trinity C of I church] can be made out, though it is badly obscured by vegetation cover. The remains consist of the foundations of the walls. The interior is filled with collapsed rubble. The building measures c. 18m E-W x c. 6m N-S. There appears to be a small annexe extending to the W off the W wall of the church. This annexe measures 4m E-W x 3m N-S' (SMR File). The OS fair plan map marks the 'site of old chapel' inside the graveyard. A short section (L. 5.1m; H 1.4m; T 0.9m) of the N wall of the medieval church of Ballyloughloe can be seen standing 9m to the S of the S wall of the post-medieval remains of Holy Trinity Church C of I Church. The outline of the levelled remains of the surviving church walls can be traced as a low rise of ground amongst the upstanding memorials. The medieval church site stands roughly on high ground in the centre of the graveyard. An Early Christian cross-slab (WM030-046---) with Goidelic inscription has been built into S face of this wall. This wall represents the remains of the R.C. Chapel depicted on the 1840 ed. OS 6-inch map which appears to be the remains of a medieval church. A limestone chamfered section of the arch belonging to a pointed medieval doorway can be seen lying on the ground beside the S face of the N wall. A second chamfered stone possibly part of the medieval doorway arch can be seen lying on the surface of the graveyard to the NE of the upstanding section of N wall of medieval church. A medieval church is depicted and annotated as in ‘ruins’ at this location on the 1656 Down Survey map of Ballyloughloe Parish (NLI p.7384). On this map the church is depicted standing inside the small townland of ‘Gleabe’ which measured 30 acres in size, the northern part of the medieval townland of Glebe is today part of the present townland of Labaun. The terrier of the 1656 Down Survey of Ballyloughloe Parish recorded that in the townlands of Glen and Tullaghanshanlin are the ‘walls of two churches’ (WM030-037----; WM030-045001-) (NLI p.7384). In the early 19th century O’Donovan recorded in the Ordnance Survey memoranda that near the ‘Protestant church (are the) ruins of a small chapel said to have been built by the Magawleys chiefs of Calree. An old woman, now 93 yrs. remembers to have seen it roofed and slated with oak shingles’ (SMR File). This small chapel appears to be the same building represented by the upstanding section of wall standing in the centre of the graveyard located 9m to the S of the post-medieval ruins of the Holy Trinity C of I church. A late 17th or early 18th century keystone of the doorway arch of the mortuary chapel decorated with an I H S monogram is located lying on the surface of the graveyard 3 metres to the N of the upstadning section of church wall. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 6 March 2014

• WM030-045002 Ecclesiastical enclosure
  Description

  Possible ecclesiastical enclosure identified by Swan (1988, 10) who recorded that there was evidence of a possible enclosure in the curve of earthworks on E side of graveyard (WM012-045----). Compiled by: Caimin O’Brien Date of upload: 20 August 2015

• WM030-046 Cross-slab (present location)
  Description

  Early Christian cross-inscribed slab (dims. L 0.9m; Wth 0.43m) that has been built into the S face of a short section of the upstanding remains of the N wall of a medieval church (WM030-045001-) located 9m S of the post-medieval ruins of Holy Trinity Church standing in the centre of the graveyard (WM030-045----). The slab has been built into the S face of the wall at a height of 0.9m above the surface of the graveyard. The slab contains a small incised linear Latin cross with bifid terminals also known as a cross fourchee and a Goidelic inscription which reads Or do Maelmaire that has be inset into the wall of the old mortuary chapel of the Magawley family. The inscription Or do Mael Maire can be expanded into Oroit Do Maelmaire, meaning Pray for Maelmaire. The cross-inscribed slab was formerly located in the grounds of Shurock House located 2.3km to the SE. In the 1872 it was recorded that the ‘inscribed stone Or do Mailmaire, now preserved at Shurock, near moate, was carried thither, as Dr. Petrie learned from an old inhabitant of the place, from Calraighe. This was the ancient name of the M’Gawleys’ country in Westmeath – a territory comprising the parish of Ballyloughloe, in which Shurock is situated. There is an old church in the neighbourhood called Culree [Calry], from which this stone was taken, and placed on the side of a small moat in the demesne of Shurock House, where it may still be seen. In the Ordnance Survey Letters (County Westmeath, pp. 29, 30), the following passage occurs: “M’Fibris mentions different tribes in Ireland under the name Calraighe, who belonged to this district. Not far from the site of Ballyloughloe is shown the site of a small abbey, but no remains of any walls; and near the Protestant Church are the remains of a small chapel, said to have been built by the M’Gawleys, chiefs of Culree” ’ (Stokes 1872, 11). The cross-slab was recorded by H. G. Leask while it was in situ at Shurock House. Leask described the slab as following: ‘located at the back of the residence there is a mound of irregular formation at the edge of which there is a flat stone, 3’ 0” x 18” (0.91m x 0.45m) irregular in shape and inscribed as sketch (see attached image of sketch made by Leask)’ (SMR file). In 1949 Macalister (1949, 79) recorded that slab was built into ‘the side of a mound in the grounds of Shurock, a short distance north of Moate railway station'. According to Fanning and Ó hÉailidhe (1980, 12) this cross-slab was ‘first recorded by Petrie who found it in 1822 lying on the side of a mound in the estate at Shurock House near Moate. He was informed by old people in the neighbourhood that it had been removed from the old church at Calraighe (Calry). At present it is built into some wall remains in the centre of the old graveyard (WM030-045----) at Labaun, Mount Temple, near Moate'. The location of the medieval church of Calry is uncertain it may have been the site of the church (WM030-045001-) which stood in the graveyard in the townland of Labaun. Alternatively 'Calry Church' may have been the ecclesiastical site (WM030-035----) depicted on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map as an ‘Abbey’ located 340m NW of Loch Luatha [Ballyloughloe]. 'Calry Church' appears to have been known as Ballyloughloe Church from which the parish received its name. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 6 March 2014

• WM030-047 Castle - motte and bailey
  Description

  Impressive motte with two baileys situated at NW end of glacial ridge running NW-SE with commanding views of the surrounding countryside. Medieval church site of Ballyloughloe (WM030-045001-) and graveyard (WM030-045----) containing Early Christian cross-inscribed slab with Goidelic inscription (WM030-046----) 120m to the W. The village of Mount Temple is located 280m to the W. The motte and bailey castle at Ballyloughloe was probably built c. 1180 by Hugh de Lacy as part of his military campaign through the Gaelic kingdom of Meath. Once possession of the lands of Meath had been secured, the lands of Ballyloughloe were then granted by De Lacy to Richard de Tuit [Tuite] as part of the Anglo-Norman settlement of the lordship of Meath. In 1206 the Annals of Clonmacnoise recorded that ‘sonnes of Art O’Melaghlin preyed the town of Baleloghloe [Ballyloughloe], and burnt part thereof’ (A. Clon., 221). In 1211-12 the Irish Pipe Roll records that Humphrey de Dene was renting the lands of Ballyloughloe which belonged to Richard de Tuit. In this year ‘Humphrey de Dene renders account of £33 19s. 9d. fixed rent of Ballyloughloe for half a year’ (Davies and Quinn 1941, 51). The castle of ‘Lagholachan’ appears to be the motte castle of Ballyloughloe that was restored c. 1215 to Walter de Lacy (Orpen 1911-20, 181). In this year the King ‘commands Thomas de Legh that when the justiciary of Ireland shall have notified that Walter de Lascy has given security for the fine stipulated, Thomas shall deliver to Walter the castle of Laghelachon [Ballyloughloe]’ (Cal. doc. Ire., 95). In 1234 Felim O’Connor, King of Connacht with his army ‘came to Meath, burnt Balleloghluaha [Ballyloughloe] and Ardnurcher with many other townes’ (A. Clon., 234). In 1907 the site was described by Orpen (1907, 273) as ‘a typical Norman earthwork, fashioned out of an esker ridge, and apparently untouched since it bore its wooden tower and wooden palisades. The foundations of a stone wall 8 feet [2.4m] wide may, indeed, be seen running up the slope of the mote; but this was probably to support the bridge which connected the ‘tower on high’ with the bailey. In a hasty view, at least, I could see no other signs of a stone building. The mote is very steep and lofty, and the fosse surrounding it and connecting with the fosse round a shield-shaped bailey to the west is about 30 feet [10m] wide. To the east a crescent-shaped bailey was formed by cutting off the eastern extension of the esker by a strong rampart and fosse. Further to the east lies the nearly dried-up bed of the lough. The Irish name Baile locha luatha means ‘the town of the lake of ashes’, or ‘of the dried-up lake’. Present remains consist of a high steep sided conical-shaped flat-topped mound (top diam. 14.3m NW-SE; base diam. c. 32m NW-SE; H c. 12m) the base of which is enclosed by a deep V-shaped fosse (base Wth 2.7m) which separates a high bailey area at the NW end of the ridge and a second bailey area to the SE. A shallow circular depression on the summit of mound may have been created by the Ordnance Survey in the 19th century when an OD station marking 420 ft was established on top of the motte. This OD point is marked on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map. No clear evidence of a stone wall measuring 2.7m wide described by Orpen in 1907 could be seen running up the slope of the motte. The footings of a low stone wall measuring 0.6m thick could be seen running up along the NW face of the motte connecting the bailey area to the motte which may be the same feature recorded by Orpen. An earlier site inspection carried out by the Archaeological Survey of Ireland in 1973 recorded the remains of a ‘stone feature, this runs approx. from the base of the motte to about half way up the side of the motte. This may be the remains of a stairway’ (SMR File 1973). These possible ‘steps’ may be the same feature described by Orpen in 1907 as a stone wall. This feature on the W side of the motte was described by the Archaeological Survey in 1980 as ‘there are traces of stone steps (?) set in the side of the motte on the W’. The dating and function of this feature is uncertain. It could be the remains of a structure built to support a bridge connecting the bailey on the NW side to the summit of the motte as suggested by Orpen in 1907. Alternatively it could be the remains of a post-medieval wall or steps providing access to the summit of the motte. The bailey to the NW of the motte consists of a high D-shaped area (dims. 25m NW-SE; 23.5m SSW-NNE) enclosed by a poorly preserved earth and stone bank mainly reduced to a scarp with a sunken rectangular depression (dims. 11m NW-SE x 4.1m NNE-SSW; D c. 1m) in SE quadrant and a second similar shaped depression (dims. 8.3m NW-SE x 7.6m NE-SW; D c. 1m) in S quadrant. Both of these depressions may be the remains of post-medieval quarrying although the regularity of their shape and lack of upcast material suggests they could be features of medieval date. The natural steeply inclined slope of the NW end of the glacial ridge provides the defensive feature on all three sides of this bailey area. A second crescent-shaped bailey area can be seen to the SE of the motte. This bailey area is defined by a well preserved earth and stone bank (top Wth 1.5m; int. H 1.3m; ext. H c. 2m) with external fosse (base Wth 2m; ext. D 1m) which runs across the glacial ridge forming a crescent-shaped bailey (dims. 16m NW-SE). No entrance gap could be identified in the external bank defining the bailey area to the SE. The enclosing bank on this side of the bailey runs across the ridge from N to S and then turns inwards towards the fosse enclosing the base of the motte forming a crescent shaped bailey in this area which wraps itself around the base of the motte from NNE-E-S-SW. The curving field boundary to the SE of the motte indicated on the revised 1910 ed. OS 25-inch map incorporates the enclosing bank of the bailey. The SE bailey protects the motte on the side which was the natural entrance point to the monument via the top of the high glacial ridge which continues on to the SE of the fortification. Today there is no enclosing bank visible around the base of the motte from N- NE where there is a flat-topped berm which may have been created when the enclosing bank was levelled possibly in the post-medieval period. There is no clear evidence for any entrance feature into either bailey and no surface evidence to suggest how the summit of the motte connected to the bailey area the SE. The footings of a low wall visible running across the fosse on the NW side of the motte may be associated with a flying bridge connecting the NW bailey to the summit of the motte. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 2 April 2014 This monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 3/1980).

Designated sites: National Parks and Wildlife Service. Recorded monuments: Sites and Monuments Record, National Monuments Service. 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).

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.