Amateur historian stumbles across town’s ‘lost’ castle
A CASTLE “lost” in the middle of an Irish town for more than 250 years has been rediscovered after an amateur historian “stumbled across” the walls hidden in undergrowth.
For years a 1741 drawing of Clones, County Monaghan, held in the National Library, puzzled residents.
It shows an impressive castle in the centre of their small town, which currently has a population of just 8,000, but it could not be traced in maps of the area.
An archaeological excavation in the Nineties also failed to uncover the ruins, missing its location by metres. But George Knight found it in March. Its walls were covered in ivy and the building, which had been reused for agriculture, disguised in the undergrowth.
Mr Knight, 71, told the BBC he was aware of the building but that experts had previously dismissed it “with a cursory glance” as being “of no great historical importance”. He said: “It really is a missing link in the story of Clones, a unique building and something that we’re very keen to preserve for future generations.”
Recruiting the help of Monaghan county heritage officer Shirley Clerkin, the pair started exploring the area near the town’s Castle Street.
“Everybody believed the castle had gone completely,” said Ms Clerkin, 44.
“We had no plans to look for it until that day and just luckily stumbled across it.
“We crossed over a lot of barbed wire, a lot of brambles, woody-stuff and we came in front of this building and looked up at the front wall and realised we were standing in front of something potentially very significant,” she said.
“This building had been re-used as an agricultural building and had been completely forgotten about from the point of view of it being a potential castle candidate.”
The fortified house is believed to have been built in the 1600s by local landlords, the Lennard-Barret family.
Archaeologists will return to Clones to carry out excavations.