Ballina - Architectural Heritage

BALLINA

1.      Class: Children’s burial ground. SMR no. GA058-007—-

The children’s burial ground is located on reclaimed level pastureland. It is an unenclosed oval area (E-W 30m, N-S 24.25m) within which a fairly dense concentration of small plain moss-covered, flat and upright, grave-markers are visible, aligned E-W.

2.      Class: House – 17th century. SMR no. GA058-009—-

It is located some 90m NNE of a castle (GA058-010001-). It is a very poorly preserved 2-storey rectangular house (NE-SW; L 21m, Wth 9m), probably of late 17th/18th-C date. The upper storey is contained within the pitch of the roof. All that survives is NE gable crowned by a rectangular chimney, along with short returns of SE and NW side-walls. There are 2 robbed-out fireplaces and 2 wall recesses on ground floor, and a 3rd  fireplace on 1st floor, flanked by 4 rectangular windows.

3.      Class: Castle – unclassified. SMR no. GA058-010001-

It is located on a low mound in undulating grassland. In existence in 1574 when it was in the possession of ‘Richard Burke fitz Tho.’ (Nolan 1901b, 119). According to Nolan (1901a, 40), ‘It was blown up to furnish stones for Moyne’. No visible surface trace survives apart from a spread of large boulders. A rectangular bawn (L 40m, Wth 25m) abuts the monument at N and a field system (GA058-010002-) lies to NW and N.

4.      Class: Field system. SMR no. GA058-010002-

The field system is located to the NW and N of a castle (GA058-010001-). A series of low grassed-over earthen banks, visible intermittently, cover an area c. 180m NE-SW by c. 60m NW-SE. The line of 1 earthen bank, aligned NW-SE, can be traced through several fields and a series of field banks aligned NE-SW run off it. A rectangular area (N-S 40m, E-W 15m) defined by a bank is also visible immediately to N of the castle.

The above information was first published in Killererin – A Parish History which is for sale on this website or locally in Centra, Barnaderg or Books R Us, Tuam.