Bawn, Heathstown, Co. Westmeath
In the townland of Heathstown, County Westmeath, historians and archaeologists have been searching for the remains of a 17th-century house and bawn that once belonged to Andrew Tuite, described in historical records as an 'Irish papist'.
Bawn, Heathstown, Co. Westmeath
The 1659 Down Survey map of Killua parish depicts this structure as a two-storey house with a gable-ended chimney stack, sitting within a rectangular fortified enclosure known as a bawn. According to the survey’s terrier, recorded in the National Library of Ireland, ‘There is a House with a Bawne in Heathstowne in good repaire’, placing it near the eastern boundary with Dervotstown townland.
The exact location of Tuite’s house remains elusive, though it may have stood close to the current Heathstown House, built in 1834 as indicated by a date on its weather vane. About 440 metres west of the Dervotstown boundary, a wide, low rise can be found, bordered by marshy ground to the west and southwest and a shallow scarp running from south to east. This elevated area shows intriguing signs of past occupation; very faint remnants of low banks cross the rise, whilst several shallow depressions at the southeast and northern ends might mark where the original house once stood.
Despite these tantalising clues, no dressed stones typical of 16th or 17th-century construction have been found at Heathstown House or in its surrounding yard. The building represents a fascinating example of plantation-era architecture from early 17th-century Ireland, when English and Scottish settlers were encouraged to establish themselves on confiscated lands, though in this case the owner appears to have been a member of the native Irish Catholic gentry who managed to retain his property during this turbulent period.