Moygaddy Castle, Moygaddy, Co. Meath
Co. Meath |
Tower Houses
Standing on a gentle hill in County Meath, Moygaddy Castle is a modest three-storey tower house that has witnessed centuries of Irish history.
The castle sits with a small stream running through the valley about 60 metres to the northwest, whilst the Rye Water flows roughly 500 metres to the southwest. Historical records from the Civil Survey of 1654-6 reveal that Sir George Wentworth owned this property in 1640, along with 487 acres that included not just the stone house but also a mill, a pigeon house and two farm houses. Wentworth was clearly a significant landowner in the area, possessing an additional 1,400 acres elsewhere in Moyglare parish, which amounted to nearly the entire parish.
The tower house itself is relatively compact, measuring approximately 5.5 metres by 4.65 metres externally. Its survival owes much to conservation work carried out in 1892 by the fifth Duke of Leinster, who was concerned that the structure, so close to his principal residence at Carton, was in danger of collapse. Today, visitors can see a buttress supporting the eastern angle and a modernised parapet at the top. The original entrance in the northwest wall has been blocked, with access now through a secondary entrance on the southeast wall that leads directly into a small chamber. A newel staircase at the northern angle connects the floors, with the ground floor chamber featuring a cupboard and window in the southwest wall, whilst corbels support the first floor beneath a barrel-vaulted ceiling that still shows evidence of wicker-centring.
The internal layout reveals the typical defensive and domestic arrangements of a medieval tower house. Off the stairs from the ground floor, a small chamber in the northeast wall likely served as a garderobe, complete with two windows for ventilation. The first floor contains a window in the northwest wall and another small chamber at the northern end, accessed through a lintelled doorway. Above the vault, the second floor has windows on each wall, though the one on the northwest side is now blocked. A second newel staircase in the eastern angle rises from here to the modern parapet, though evidence suggests there was originally at least one additional upper floor, typical of tower houses of this period.