Plantation Castles

The regulations imposed on the grantees of lands in the Plantation scheme required every undertaker of a 2,000-acre proportion to build a castle enclosed with a strong court or bawn; of a 1,500-acre proportion a stone or brick house and bawn; and of a 1,000-acre proportion a bawn at least. The servitors were likewise bound to the same building obligations. The word bawn derives from the Irish for ‘cow fort’ and was used to describe a walled courtyard that was usually square or rectangular in plan.

The best written sources for Plantation buildings are the four surveys carried out between 1611 and 1622. What emerges from these surveys is the sheer variety of different building types constructed in this period. Nicholas Pynnar summed up his report of 1619 by stating that there were ‘107 Castles with Bawnes, 19 Castles without Bawnes, 42 Bawnes without Castles or Houses, and 1,897 Dwelling Houses of Stone and Timber, after the English manner in Townreeds, besides very many such Houses in several parts which I saw not’.

Most of the structures built at this time have not survived, either as a result of the wars of the 1600s or neglect. However, the remains of a number of the castles, bawns and fortified houses can be found across the planted counties and provide a very clear link with the events of 400 years ago.

Plantation churches

The churches of the Plantation were for the most part fairly simple structures, rectangular in plan, and lacking any great degree of ornamentation. This was a reflection of a number of things, including the relative simplicity of Reformed worship and the lack of resources available for church-building. Often the churches built by the settlers stood on the site of the pre-Reformation parish church, though in other instances churches were built in the towns and villages that were being developed at this time.

The now ruined church just outside the village of Derrygonnelly was built by Sir John Dunbar. The doorway in the west gable is the most distinctive feature of this small rectangular structure. Round-headed, and studded with diamond-shaped facets, parallels can be drawn between this doorway and similar decorative features found across Europe.

Clonfeacle parish church in the village of Benburb is one of the oldest churches in Ulster still in regular use. Captain Nicholas Pynnar, in his survey of 1618-19, noted a ‘church in building, 70 feet long and 24 feet broad, with 8 large windows, and is now ready to have the roof set up’. The church was sponsoered by Sir Richard Wingfield, the grantee of lands in this area.

The development of Killeshandra in the Plantation period was due to the efforts of a branch of the Hamilton family from Innerwick in Haddingtonshire. The old medieval church adjoining the town was restored. In 1688 an aisle in the Renaissance style was added on the south side.