Contemporary documents from the period describe a fortified house, or bawn, built from lime and stone; a typical defensive structure for landowners during those uncertain times. Whilst the Down Survey maps of 1656-8 mark the land at ‘Crenit’ within the barony of Clonmoghan, curiously no house appears on these detailed records, leaving something of a mystery about what exactly stood there in the mid-17th century.

Today, the site is better known as Bellville, where archaeological evidence tells its own story. Extending westward from an early 18th-century house and farm complex, you can still make out the remains of what appears to be the original bawn. It survives as a low, grass-covered earthen platform, roughly rectangular in shape with rounded corners, measuring approximately 53 metres north to south and 38 metres east to west. This substantial earthwork likely represents the defensive perimeter that once protected the Fleming family’s stone house.

The transformation from Crenard to Bellville reflects centuries of changing ownership and evolving architectural styles, with the current Georgian-era buildings overlaying and obscuring much of the earlier Plantation-period structures. The Irish Tourist Association first surveyed these remains in 1941, recognising their historical significance, and the site was later documented in the Archaeological Inventory of County Cavan, ensuring this remnant of Ireland’s contested past remains part of the historical record.