Clintstown Castle

In a fairly level cultivated grass field on a gentle W-facing slope towards a channel of the River Nore. On the Down Survey (1655-6) Parish map of Coolerahin, there is a castle drawn in the W portion of the townland, E of the River Nore. The terrier accompanying the map of records, ‘a little Castle and House in Repaire at Clintstowne with some Cabbins’, with the proprietor listed as ‘Lord MountGarrett Ir[ish] Pa[pist]’. According to Carrigan (1905, vol. 2, 199), in the '"castle-field" there was a castle, the ruins of which were removed about 1860; it belonged, as did the whole townland, to the Mountgarrets'.

The field is known locally as 'Castle Field' and cannon balls, now missing, were uncovered here in the 1950s. Though not indicated as a castle, a rectangular ruined building (dims. c. 16m x c. 5m), orientated NNW-SSE, is depicted on the 1st (1839) edition OS 6-inch map in this field. It is not depicted on the revised 1947 edition. The castle is not visible at ground level.