Though you won’t find any visible traces today, this level patch of farmland once held a tower house, one of the defensive structures that dotted the Irish landscape during the medieval period. The only evidence of its existence comes from an unusual source: a handwritten notation on an old Ordnance Survey map, discovered by researcher O’Keefe in 1986 amongst the papers of a Dublin collector named Paddy Healy.

Tower houses were fortified residences built throughout Ireland between the 15th and 17th centuries, typically constructed by wealthy landowners seeking both comfort and security during turbulent times. These stone structures, usually three to five storeys high, combined domestic living spaces with defensive features like narrow windows, thick walls, and battlements. The Newcastle North example would have been part of this broader pattern of fortification that characterised the Pale, the area around Dublin under direct English control.

The complete disappearance of the Newcastle North tower house isn’t unusual; many such structures were demolished or fell into ruin as Ireland’s political landscape shifted and the need for fortified dwellings diminished. Some were quarried for building stone, whilst others were simply abandoned and gradually reclaimed by the landscape. Today, this site serves as a reminder that history often lies hidden beneath ordinary fields and roads, waiting to be rediscovered through careful research and the occasional fortunate find in an archive.