This location once held a bawn, a type of fortified enclosure commonly built around tower houses and castles in Ireland during the plantation period. The area’s connection to the O’Dowd family runs deep; Longford served as one of their principal seats, a testament to their power and influence in medieval Sligo.

The genealogical manuscripts of Duald MacFirbis, the renowned 17th-century Irish historian, provide a fascinating glimpse into the site’s past. According to MacFirbis, the English constructed most of Longford’s bawn, with one intriguing exception: ‘Leaba an eich bhuidhe’, translated as ‘the bed of the yellow steed’. This cryptic reference hints at an older structure or feature that predated English fortifications, possibly linked to local mythology or an earlier Gaelic stronghold that the O’Dowds wished to preserve.

Today, no visible remains of the bawn survive above ground, leaving only historical records and the pastoral landscape to tell its story. The site was documented by historian O’Rorke in 1890, who noted its importance in the region’s complex history of Gaelic lordship and English colonisation. While the stone walls have long since vanished, the location continues to hold archaeological potential, offering insights into the layered history of power, conflict, and cultural change that shaped County Sligo.