On the banks of the river Barrow, at the point where Counties Carlow and Laois shade into each other, stands this building, known as Clongrennan Lock (also Lanigan’s Lock). Not far away are what remains of Clongrennane Castle, a 15th century construction, with the now-ruined early 19th century residence of the Rochfort family close by. Was this building, with its little turreted towers at each corner, originally part of the same estate? There appears to be no information available about the site: all answers welcome.
The stonework on the turret looks late medieval/16th century. The ogee headed window, made of a few cut stones also appears medieval, but it could equally well have been early 19th century, reusing medieval material from the ruined castle.
It seems to have been a walled depot connected with the canal and it’s labelled as “Coal Yard” on the first edition Ordnance Survey (1840). The turrets marking each of the four corners, giving it the impression of a bawn, may have been stores. The house is labelled as “Tower Cottage” on the 25inch Ordnance Survey (1908).
On OSI Geohive map viewer are different historic maps. Link: Irish Townland and Historical Map Viewer
https://osi.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=bc56a1cf08844a2aa2609aa92e89497e
On the “MapGenie 6 inch (1838-1845) First Edition color” are no towers. The building shown at the same spot looks L-shaped just beside the river. Difficult to read what is written –“Red Stone of Upper Gate / Cloghrenan Lock”.
On the “MapGenie 25 inch” (1898-1913) are shown 4 towers and buildings in between. This map shows the “clearest” details.
On the “MapGenie 6 inch Last Edition Black & White” is written for this site “Tower Cott.{age}”. The buildings are not clearly to identify but could be with towers. The customer service of OSI wrote me: The Historic Last Edition refers to the 6” Mapping only and is the latest edition of particular sheets. Do bear in mind though that the Historic Mapping (Cassini Projection) ceased production in the 1960’s which means that a lot of ‘Last Edition’ maps may be from as far back as the 1920/30s.
These are puzzles of different situations shown on the historic maps. I hope that it helps for dating the towers….
*Clogrennane