Syonan

16 registered freehold parcels lie mostly in Syonan, from 36 m² to 91,380 m² (9.14 ha, 22.58 acres). The dashed line is the townland's boundary; 22 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 Syonan 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.

• 9 May 2025Conditional

  construction of a new dwelling, garage, wastewater treatment system & percolating area and all associated site works

  Permission, 1 home · Westmeath County Council, 2560222

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 Syonan.

Recorded monuments

• WM031-086 Castle - tower house
  Description

  Situated at the E end of a small, low ridge running E-W, in undulating pasture. A small stream runs roughly N-S c. 18m to E. Annotated ‘Syonan Castle (in Ruins)’ on the 1910 ed. OS 25-inch map and depicted as a rectangular-shaped structure with a square building abutting to S and a range of buildings running NNE-SSW at SW corner. A large complex of buildings annotated ‘Corn Mill’ are located c. 20m to E. Syonan Castle described in 1979 a four storey high rectangular-shaped tlobby-entrance ower house (dims. 9m E-W; 7m N-S) in a good state of preservation, surviving to a height of approx. 15m. The walls are constructed of undressed limestone blocks laid in courses with an external base batter (approx. H 5m) and a rough narrow plinth at the base of the W and N walls. There are dressed quoin stones some of which have fallen out and lie on the ground a short distance from the base of the wall. The ground floor of the castle is currently entered through a doorway at the W end of the S wall which consists of a plain rectangular opening having no dressed stone. There is a blocked arched opening in the N end of the E wall which may have been the original doorway. There are a number of plain rectangular window openings in all four walls and some small arrow loops at the upper floor levels. Some dressed stones survive on the external faces of the slit opes. The opening of a garderobe chute is visible at the N end of the W wall. A thick cross wall runs N-S on the E side of the interior and is bonded into the N and S walls. This wall cuts off a narrow rectangular-shaped portion of the interior and is accessed through an arched opening with traces of wicker centering. It also has a small splayed window-like opening with a flat lintelled head toward the N end. There is a spiral staircase in the SE corner which gives access to upper floors. The stairs is blocked at ground floor level which is currently being used to store modern building materials. There is a stone vault over the first floor. There is a fireplace in the S wall at first floor level. Traces of plaster are visible on the internal walls in places. The outbuildings shown in this vicinity on the 1910 ed. OS 25-inch map have been removed and no traces remain. The remains of the old mill complex depicted on this map are incorporated into a farmyard on the opposite side of a small watercourse. Monument is visible today as a rectangular-shaped structure on Digital Globe aerial photography. Castle described by Salter (2004, 155) as following; 'Two ogival-headed lancets now reset in the tower [WM039-001----] at Tyrrelspass were recently taken from this four storey McGeoghegan tower measuring 9.5m by 7m which existed by 1566. The east wall contains the lobby of the original blocked entrance and a spiral stair in the SE corner. The second storey has a vault and a fireplace in the south wall. The third storey also has a fireplace on the south side, and a latrine in the NW corner'. Compiled by Alison McQueen, Vera Rahilly and Caimin O’Brien. Date of upload: 22 November 2019

• WM031-087 Barrow - unclassified
  Description

  Situated on a gravel ridge, in undulating pasture. Annotated ‘Moat’ on the 1837 OS Fair Plan. Depicted on the 1837 ed. OS 6-inch map as a large earthwork (overall approx. dims. 50m NE-SW; 45m NW-SE) which is bounded by a townland boundary to SE, SW and NW. Not depicted on the 1910 ed. OS 25-inch map and possibly was levelled during the construction of the Midland Great Western Railway (b. 1845) (Clara Branch opened 1863) which cuts N-S directly across this location. The townland boundary has been adjusted to E of the monument on the 1910 ed. OS 25-inch map. In 1858-8 the Royal Irish Academy purchased antiquities supplied by W. R. Wilde one of which was described as a 'A very beautiful cinerary urn, now numbered 49, in continuation of those in the printed Catalogue. It is of the vase shape, 5½ inches high, 6½ in diameter of mouth, and 7½ in the widest part. Although the material of which it is composed is not of so fine a character as that of many of the other urns in the Museum, the style of ornamentation is unique, and much more complicated than in any other specimen. It was found in a stone chamber at the moat of Sionan, near Horseleap, county of Westmeath, and was purchased from P. Fagan. Four beads, one of vitrified paste, and three of rough coloured glass, purchased along with the former, and now numbered 181 to 184 in Railcase D' (PRIA 1857-61, 128). This may be the 'Moat of Sionan' described by Waddell (1970, 134) as a bowl food vessel which was found ‘in a stone chamber’ suggesting that the ‘stone chamber’ in question may have been a Bronze Age cist that was situated in this earthwork thus confirming it as a type of burial mound or barrow. Levelled monument described in 1973 as no surface remains visible. The railway line seems to have cut through a small gravel ridge or hillock at this location. The line has since been lifted and the edge of a gravel ridge is now visible to the immediate E side of it. A laneway adjoins the E side of the residual portion of gravel ridge. Levelled monument is not visible today on Digital Globe aerial photography. Compiled by Alison McQueen, Vera Rahilly and Caimin O’Brien. Date of upload: 22 November 2019

Architectural heritage

• Mill (water), 1780–1840 · Regional interest
  Description

  Former corn mill complex, built c.1800, comprising a detached three-storey store/granary building to the east, a two-storey former corn mill to the west with a single-storey shed attached to the south. Now out of use and derelict. Pitched natural slate roof with a projecting brick eaves course and raised verges to either end (east and west). Pitched corrugated cement and metal roofs to ancillary structures. Constructed of rubble limestone with evidence of render over, now failing. Square and segmental-headed openings with brick lintels. Fittings now gone. Single-arched bridge with cut stone voussoirs over former tailrace to the south and the remains of a former mill pond to the north. Renovated former mill house to the east side of complex. Located to the north of Horseleap.

• Bridge, 1860–1865 · Regional interest
  Description

  Single-arched railway bridge, built c.1863, carrying former Midland Great Western Railway company's Streamstown Junction to Clara railway line over road. No longer in active use. Constructed of rusticated limestone with rock-faced voussoirs to arch and ashlar limestone coping over parapet. Splayed rusticated limestone retaining walls to either side. Located to the north of Horseleap.

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 5 homes in this area is likely to have high radon levels. Testing a home

Landslides

Susceptibility low, on the 1:50,000 map.

Terrain model

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

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 Syonan with five sales or more. The sales of the area are on the page of Co. Westmeath.

Name

Syonan

Area

411,067 m² (41.11 ha, 101.58 acres)

Civil parish

Ardnurcher or Horseleap, and its townlands

Barony

Moycashel

Electoral division

Streamstown, the unit of the census

Census 2022

Streamstown electoral division: 517 people in 139 households; 93% of households own their home; 31% of homes were built since 2001; 9% of dwellings stood vacant on census night, and 2% were holiday homes.

Neighbouring townlands

Ardnurcher, Corgarve, Killeenycallaghan, Laragh, Teermore

Placenames

Syonan 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.