archaeological & built heritage assessment - The Heritage Council

the new castle was built. The entire island is shown as a fortified structure with massive walls built right
out to the shoreline and with the ruins of the castle within. Lord Lorton’s new castle was lavishly
furnished and used as a guest house but it, too, was badly damaged by fire and never restored.
Trinity Island had been given by the MacDermots to the White Canons of St Francis, Premonstratensian
Canons, in the thirteenth century. They remained on the island until the suppression of the monasteries in
the early 1600s and it was here that the Annals of Loch Cé were written which have left us such a wealth of
information about the family. The original book is in the library of Trinity College Dublin and the annals
trace the history of the area and of the abbey. Excavations have taken place on Church Island and Trinity
Island on Lough Key (2000:0860 & 1991:112/1992:161 respectively) with a bid to initiate a programme of
conservation works.
Delaney (2000) notes that people chartering boats are not encouraged to explore the Lough Key but are
instructed to keep to the main sailing course and as such the Boyle River has become a popular
destination. The Shannon Commissioners removed the bends and dredged the river up to Boathouse
Ford, which is c. 3km from the town of Boyle, but they did not attempt to extend the navigation any
further because there is a rise of c. 10m from here to the bridge at Boyle (ibid.). In this area the river is in
fact a mill race and the slope provided a force of water sufficient to power four turbines in the bed of the
river, two of which powered the mills which ground grains and the other two each powering a 60
horsepower DC generator. Along with two single-cylinder Blackstone diesel generators, the river
generators supplied power and lighting to the mills and to homes from 1901 until 1966, when government
electricity was provided (ibid.).
The Shannon Commissioners constructed a road along the river which is a more direct route into Boyle
than the old road across Drum Bridge. There are the well known and extensive ruins of a Cistercian
Abbey, founded in 1161 on the site of an earlier religious settlement. Although it survived the dissolution
of the monasteries in the reign of Henry VIII, it did not escape in the reign of Elizabeth I and the lands
finally came into the possession of the King family. The abbey buildings were subsequently used as a
military barracks by Cromwellian soldiers. There are currently small excavations ongoing at the western
walls of the abbey and fragments of cut stone have been uncovered.
A five-span masonry arch bridge spans the Boyle water at the entrance to the former Cistercian Abbey. It
is an important bridge from a historical point of view since it seems never to have been widened or
reconstructed (Simington & O’Keefe 1991). It is built in the Irish Romanesque style and there are two
other bridges in the town, New Bridge bridge and Town Bridge, both built in the nineteenth century.
Simington & O’Keefe (1991) argue that the most likely period for the construction of the bridge was
between 1190 and 1220. The most notable feature is the massive triangular upriver cutwaters which
extend upward to road level and are coped with stone slabs laid flat. There are none on the downriver
face. The bridge marks a transition from the traditional Irish to Anglo-Norman forms of construction.
Most importantly it is one of the very few early survivors with some (circular) segmental arches.
In terms of archaeology, Area 3 is covered by RMP map sheet Roscommon: 6 (see Appendix 1). In total
there are one hundred and one recorded archaeological monuments located within Area 3 dating possibly
as far back as the Bronze Age up to Post Medieval times. These sites include cashels (2) / a children’s
burial ground / ecclesiastical remains (4) / abbeys (2) / churches (4) / stone sculpture / oratory / possible
promontory fort / enclosures (31) / ringforts (13) / mound / building / weir / holy wells (3) / house site (2)
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