Mortimer's Castle

National Monument No. 610. In 1682, Sir Henry Piers recorded that Fahatty or Faughalstown on the eastern banks of Lough Derravaragh was ‘the retiring place of Mortimer Earl of March’ (Vallancey 1786, 66). In a letter written by Goddard H. Orpen to Thomas Lunn of Belvedere, the historian wrote that the tradition recorded by Piers may have been to Sir Thomas de Mortimer, Chief Justice of the King’s Bench in 1382 rather than Sir Edmund Mortimer who died in 1381. In 1397, Sir Thomas de Mortimer fled to Ireland and sought refuge with the native Irish in Leinster after he was found guilty of treason by English Parliament and a warrant was issued for his arrest (Gilbert 1865, 277). No castle is depicted in this townland on the seventeenth century Down Survey map of Fore Barony (NLI, MS 723-4). The ruins of an ecclesiastical building are depicted on the Down Survey map of Fore Barony in the area where Mortimer’s Castle is indicated on the OS 6-inch map. In 1902 a single wall of the castle standing two storeys high was drawn by Revd. William Falkiner of Killucan Rectory, the illustration clearly depicts a segmental window embrasure at ground and first floor levels (NLI PD 3129 TX 6).

In 1826 the monument was described as located ‘on the eminence, overlooking every point of the lake with a lordly comprehension of view, stood, in the olden time, a baronial castle, of which, now, there remains only the foundation lines, overgrown with grass, and a very small relic of one of the inferior buildings of the fortress. The castle, which covered, including its area, more than an acre of ground was surrounded by a deep ditch; and judging from the lines of the foundations, it was on the plan, and could not have been much, if at all, inferior in magnitude, to the castle of Trim. Not many years back, a considerable portion of the ruins was standing, but they were pulled down, and the stone carried away, probably to build the cottages of the neighbouring peasantry’ (Greendrake 1826, 47).

Described in 1974 as following: ‘This is a large rectangular earthwork set on a high embankment on the edge of Lough Derravaragh. The earthwork is outlined by a low bank of earth and stone. This bank is set on top of a massive steep embankment. On the NW, North, NE & East & SE sides there is a very wide deep fosse outside the embankment. On the West and SW sides the steep embankment drops down to the edge of the lake. There are entrances to the interior on the NW and SE sides. In the SE corner the banks rise into a massive mound. In the Southern corner there is a deep depression. North of this depression there is the outline of a rectangular house. Northwest of this house site is a further large depression. In the NW corner there is a depression overgrown with . At the southern corner of this there is a small ruin. This ruin appears to have contained a stairway leading to cellars or an undercroft. It is impossible to explore this area further without a torch. In the Northern corner a bank cuts off the corner of the earthwork. South of this bank and running along the NE side of the interior is a rectangular platform. The diam. of the earthwork NE-SW is 12.5m approx. There are wide views of the surrounding countryside and the lake to East, South and West. The site is overlooked by rising ground to the NE. (SMR File 12/09/1974). Depicted on the 1837 Ordnance Survey Fair Plan map as a rectangular shaped earthwork with L-shaped ruin in NW corner. A gap in the hachures along the NW side of the earthwork may represent location of original entrance into the earthwork. OS trig. station in SE corner of monument.