Category Archives: Irish Castle

Undaunted and Vigorous Still


‘Dunloe Castle stands on a bold promontory overlooking the river near the bridge. It has a worn, but wild and hardy look about it, as if it had suffered much at the hand of time, but remained undaunted and vigorous still. The view from the castle is most exquisite, and the row down the river will be found to be not the least interesting portion of the excursion…The castle has been kept in good repair by its various proprietors. Its position was, in former days, a strong one; and it was doubtless erected for the purpose of commanding the river and the pass into the mountains. In the time of Henry VIII and Elizabeth, it frequently stood the brunt of warfare; and in 1641 it was besieged and nearly demolished by the Parliamentary forces under Ludlow.’
From The Lakes of Killarney by Robert Michael Ballantyne (1865)




‘Let no one leave Killarney without rowing a mile or two down the Laune and visiting Dunloe Castle by water; – as we did in the “gloaming” of a summer evening, when the lake was calm – the grey fly floating on its surface, and the salmon and trout springing from the waters…but here stands the Castle on its bold promontory above the river – a firm, fearless looking keep, approached by a steep hill-road, recalling both by its shape and situation, one of the Rhine towers. Land, by all means and, as it is permitted, ascend; and passing through a turngate, walk along the terrace, which commands a view of the magnificent slopes, which a little pains might easily convert into hanging gardens. The greater part of the kitchen-offices were burnt some years ago, so that the dwelling-castle has a gaunt and isolated appearance, in accordance with the wild mountain scenery.’
From A Week in Killarney by Mr and Mrs S.C. Hall (1843)




‘As we drive along, behold beneath us a view of Dunloe Castle, the remains of an old fortress, that, like Ross Castle, was used by the turbulent chiefs of the country as a place of strength and security. It suffered many vicissitudes and, at last, during the reign of Oliver Cromwell, was partly demolished by bombardment. It has been, by some late repairs, converted into a very romantic residence by the late Major Mahoney, whose politeness and attention every stranger was sure to experience. There is an embattled walk around the top, from which an extensive view of the Lake and the surrounding mountains may be taken, if the stranger deem it of sufficient importance to pause for it.’
From A New Guide to the Scenery of Killarney by D.E. Fitzpatrick (1845)


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A Well Selected Site


‘The Cathedral of Aghadoe  or Achadh-dá-eó’ (the Field of the Two Yews) is situated three miles west of Killarney, on high ground, 405 feet above sea level, from which, perhaps, a better general idea of the magnificence of the lake and mountain scenery of the district can be got than from any other point of vantage in the neighbourhood. The ground slopes up the whole way from the north shore of the Lower Lake to the Cathedral, a distance of about a mile. No one who has visited any considerable number of ancient ecclesiastical buildings can fail to have been struck by the care which the monks took in selecting sites where feelings of religious devotion might be intensified by the contemplation of all that is beautiful in nature. Sometimes the church stands beside a brawling stream, amidst the sylvan scenery of some secluded glen; or it is found by the banks of the broad river flowing through the rich meadows of the plain; or, as at Aghadoe, the charm lies in the extent of the landscape to be seen from an elevation, with its ever-changing effects of light and shade and variations of colour. The ecclesiastical remains at Aghadoe consist of the ruins of the Cathedral and the stump of a round tower, besides which are the mouldering remains of an old castle on the grassy hill-side sloping down towards the Lake. A church was founded here at a very early period by St Finan, the Leper, who also founded the monastery of Innisfallen, and whose festival is held on March 16th. Aghadoe afterwards became the site of a bishopric which was in later times joined to that of Ardfert…’
From ‘Notes on the Antiquities in Co Kerry’ by J. Romilly Allen, Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Volume II, Fifth Series, 1892





‘All the interest of this building is concentrated in the west door. It is of four orders. The external order is more or less destroyed; it is now composed of three different ornaments, parts of three arches which have been stuck in when the door was repaired and patched up. I have rubbings of one…it is an uncommon variety of the incised chevron. The height of this doorway above the present level of the ground is 5ft 3in; the width at the top is 2ft 7in, and 2 ft 9in at the bottom. The bases of the jambs are square, plain and slightly projecting. The shafts have the rope pattern with beads…There is a peculiar ornament running around one of the orders. I should say the height of the jambs is 5ft 8in, not 4ft, and that one-third of their length is hidden which spoils the proportions of the door as represented. It is built of sandstone which is said to have been brought from a distance, there being none like it to be found for many miles around…’
From Notes on Irish Architecture by Edwin, third Earl of Dunraven, edited by Margaret Stokes (London, 1877)





‘The Castle or Military Tower is situated outside the churchyard, a little way down the hill to the south. It is a circular Norman keep of the thirteenth century, 21 ft diameter inside, having walls about 6ft thick, rudely built of rounded, water-worn boulders. A staircase in the thickness of the wall leads to the first floor, and there are indications of a second floor above. The doorway is on the east side on a level with the ground. The tower stands within a square intrenchment, having projecting bastions of the south side.’
From ‘Report on the Forty-Sixth Annual General Meeting at Kerry, Ireland’. Archaeologica Cambrensis, The Journal of the Cambrian Archaeological Society, Volume IX, Fifth Series, 1892)

Langrishe Go Down


The Langrishe family were originally from Hampshire, where they lived for several centuries until one of their number, Lieutenant Hercules Langrishe, arrived in Ireland c.1650. His father was the first of the family to be given that distinctive first name (his sibling was called Lucullus). The younger Hercules had one son, John, who married no less than five times, his second wife being Alice Blayney, daughter of Henry Blayney, second Baron Blayney. She had previously been married to one Thomas Sandford, who held a long lease on lands at Knocktopher, County Kilkenny; following her own death, the lease was inherited by John Langrishe and finally in 1757 his only child (from a third marriage) Robert Langrishe completed the outright purchase of the fee simple of this property. His son, another Hercules, created a baronet in 1777, served as MP for Knocktopher for almost 40 years until the Irish Parliament was abolished in consequence of the Act of Union in 1800. A keen advocate of Irish legislative independence, he was also a supporter of Roman Catholic Relief: in 1792 Edmund Burke published his renowned Letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe arguing the necessity for all remaining civil restrictions on Catholics to be removed. Following Sir Hercules Langrishe’s death in 1811, the baronetcy and Knocktopher estate were inherited by his eldest son Robert.




The name Knocktopher derives from the Irish ‘Cnoc an Tóchair’, meaning the Hill of the Causeway. Seemingly, it first appears in surviving records from the late-13th century Ormond Deeds, associated with the Butlers. That family was critical in the development of the area, although a Norman motte and castle were already developed here by one Griffin FitzWilliam in the closing decades of the 12th century (a telling indication of public attitudes to the country’s heritage is the fact that the motte, along with some masonry, survived until 1973 when the site was completely levelled). In 1312 the Butlers took possession of Knocktopher, thereafter making it one of their principal residences; in consequence, an urban settlement grew up around the castle and eventually in 1365 Edward III gave permission for a weekly market to be held there. In the previous decade, James Butler, second Earl of Ormonde had founded a religious house in Knocktopher for Carmelite friars. They remained there until the Dissolution of the Monasteries and in 1542 their property was granted by the English government first to Sir Patrick Barnewall, Solicitor General for Ireland, and then passed to Sir Nicholas White, Master of the Rolls and Privy Councillor. His family retained Knocktopher until 1677 when it was bought by Sandsfords and, as mentioned above, through marriage it then passed into the possession of the Langrishes who remained there until 1981.




As seen today, Knocktopher Abbey primarily dates from 1866 when commissioned by Sir James Langrishe to replace an older property on the site which seemingly had been largely destroyed by fire some years earlier. The architect responsible was John McCurdy, today best-known for his remodelling of Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel. McCurdy’s output was eclectic: he also worked on the Museum Building in Trinity College Dublin and the Masonic Female Orphan School (now an hotel) in Ballsbridge, Dublin, as well as designing a number of private houses in diverse styles. At Knocktopher, evidently keen to emphasise the antiquity of the site, he opted for a loosely Gothic, asymmetrical manner, with suggestions of a French chateau, most notably in the three-storey entrance tower with Oriel window and steeply pitched roof. The building is faced in limestone ashlar, with granite used for door and lancet window dressings, the latter in bi- or tripartite arrangements. Further bipartite dormer windows are set into the roofline. What sets the house apart is that on the western side it incorporates parts of the medieval Carmelite priory, not least a great square tower of rough-hewn limestone and with window openings which may have been made by subsequent lay owners. Certainly a tall paired chimney stack suggests late 16th or early 17th century interventions and may hint at the appearance of the building lost to fire in the 19th century. But this must remain speculation, not least because access to the house’s interior was not possible. After being sold by the Langrishe family, Knocktopher Abbey was developed as a time share scheme. Today the service yard has been turned into a series of short-term self-catering units. A fascinating place that deserves closer study. 

Three-Sided




The three remaining sides of Tullomoy Castle, County Laois. Like so many other Irish ‘castles’ this is actually a tower house, possibly originating in the 16th century but then undergoing alterations in the 17th when larger windows with hood mouldings were inserted, along with the cut limestone chimneypieces with hood mouldings still visible inside some of the walls. Originally it was of three storeys over basement but the top floor is now almost entirely gone, as are the internal divisions and the eastern wall. The history of this building appears to be unknown. It may have suffered serious damage during the Confederate Wars of the 1640s and their aftermath and never been repaired thereafter, or perhaps only been abandoned as a habitation some time later.



Quaint and Old-Fashioned


‘Whoever has travelled by the coast road in County Antrim which connects the towns of Larne and Ballycastle, may have observed at the distance of five miles from Larne, after passing one of the boldest promontories on the entire coast, a castellated edifice, standing immediately on the roadside at the head of a beautiful and romantic bay. Nor can anyone with a taste for the picturesque have seen it – backed by an amphitheatre of mountains and fronted by the Irish Channel coast – without bestowing upon it at least a passing admiration…This castle was for many years the hospitable residence of the Shaws of Ballygally, who came originally from Greenock, in Scotland, where, from very early times, their ancestors occupied a very high position in Renfrewshire. The first of the Shaws, who came to Ireland in the beginning of the seventeenth century, was one of the Scottish settlers who were located in Ireland by King James I. In the Irish wars of 1641, the castle of Ballygally, garrisoned by its own tenantry, afforded shelter to the Protestants of the district, and in the Revolutionary wars of 1688-90, the name of Lieutenant-Colonel Show is often honourably mentioned.’
From The Architect, March 1st 1879.





James Shaw is thought to have been born around 1594, the son of Scotsman John Shaw who settled in Ireland with his family in the early 17th century and duly received a grant of land from the Earl of Antrim. One grant was made on 1st February, 1634, to ‘John Shaw, the elder, of Ballygellie, in the county of Antrim, gentleman,’ of ‘all that eighteen score acres of land in Ballygellie, aforesaid, Tarnemoney, Nogher, Carncaslen, and Corcermain’ to hold forever in fee farm, at the yearly rent of £24.  James Shaw subsequently married Isabel Brisbane, also of Scottish birth, and the couple were responsible for constructing a castle which in style very much reflects their country of origin. In form, the building is a four-storey rectangular tower with a steep gable-ended roof and at each corner cone-topped bartizans supported by corbels and flanked by little dormer windows. The castle was formerly surrounded by a bawn wall, necessary given the time and place in which it was built. Early photographs do not show the small circular turrets at the corners of the grounds, so these must be a late-19th century addition to the site. Inside, above the stone door giving access to a spiral staircase can be seen inscribed ‘GODIS PROVIDENS IS MY INHERITANS’ and the date 1625, and over this a coat of arms with the initials JS and IB, standing for James Shaw and Isabel Brisbane. This used to be on the exterior of the castle but was moved to its present location around 1760 when alterations were made to the building, some of which – such as a panelled room on the first floor and sash windows – still remain.





Thought to be the oldest continually-inhabited building in Northern Ireland, Ballygally Castle remained occupied by successive generations of the Shaw family until the early 19th century. Unfortunately a litigation over ownership of the property in the 1780s left them heavily indebted and in 1820 some 450 acres around the castle had to be sold. Thereafter it appears to have been rented to a variety of tenants. In 1834, for example, it was reported as being ‘the dwelling of the chief officer of the coastguard for the prevention of smuggling, from which it would appear that it has been subject to a complete reversal of destiny, having been supposed at one time to have been a stronghold for smuggling.’ Four decades later, the Presbyterian minister and historian Classon Porter was living there and described the castle as ‘quaint and old-fashioned but that I like, and it is very warm and comfortable, the walls being 5 or 6 feet thick so that we never feel the greatest storm that blows.’ After the First World War, Colonel William Agnew Moore, whose great-grandmother had been a Shaw, came to live in the castle, the last member of the family to do so. Within a few years, he had put the building up for sale and in 1936 it was bought by the Earl of Antrim (whose ancestor had first granted the land on which it stood to John Shaw). A local newspaper reported that the earl ‘is busy at present converting this ancient mansion into a modern hotel’ which duly opened in 1938. It was sold again in the early 1950s, this time to entrepreneur Cyril Lord (who had a carpet factory in neighbouring County Down). He refurbished and extended the property before it changed hands once more. Today Ballygally Castle continues to operate as an hotel, the late Charles Brett deeming additions to the north to be ‘unobjectionable.’ while ‘more lurid, Disneylike proposals were fortunately disallowed in 1984.’ 

 

Held Hostage



Gortnaclea Castle, County Laois is a 16th century tower house originally built by the Mac Giolla Phádraig family on a site overlooking the Gully river. It is famous for having been the place where in April 1600 Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond, a long-time ally of the English crown but by then aged almost 70, was held hostage by Owny MacRory O’More. At the end of the month, O’More sent his demands to the government, which included the removal of all English garrisons from that part of the country. This stipulation – and sundry others – were not met but the earl, by then in poor health, was eventually released after the payment of £3,000 (and lived for another 16 years). Of five storeys, Gortnaclea is a typical tower house of the period but unfortunately its easterly entrance front has long since collapsed, bringing down the spiral staircase which would have been immediately inside the main door; the graceful curving wall of the staircase can be seen on the north-east corner.


A Picturesque Feature in the Landscape


Seemingly there are some 100 places around the world called Newcastle, six of them located in Ireland (one of these, in County Meath, is a couple of miles away from the more substantial settlement of Oldcastle). Newcastle, County Tipperary is one of the smaller holders of the name, being a small village seemingly of little note. But it contains two substantial mediaeval ruins, one being a large 12th/13th century church and the other the castle from which Newcastle takes its name. 




The ‘new’ castle in County Tipperary presumably replaced an older one, but there does not appear to be any information about the latter. What remains can be seen close to the banks of the river Suir, the navigable possibilities of which was one reason for the choice of this site. The castle is believed to have been built for the Prendergast family, the first of whom Maurice de Prendergast, was among the Cambro-Norman knights who accompanied Richard de Clare (otherwise known as Strongbow) to Ireland and then settled here.  Around 1230 his grandson, William de Prendergast exchanged lands he had inherited in what is now County Limerick with Jeffrey de Marisco for those in this part of Tipperary. There may already have been some kind of castle already erected but the ruins seen today were certainly enhanced and enlarged by the Prendergasts who remained in occupation until the mid-17th century. In the aftermath of the Confederate Wars, Edmond Prendergast’s estates were taken from him by the Cromwellian government and the link with Newcastle broken. Edmond Prendergast’s grandson, Sir Thomas Prendergast, who grew up in poverty, led an extraordinarily adventurous life. Having fought in the service of James II, he allied himself to William III after the Treaty of Limerick. A Roman Catholic, he was involved in a Jacobite plot to kill the king, but then switched sides and provided evidence that helped to convict many of his former fellow-plotters. He then seems to have conformed to the Established Church and was rewarded with lands around Gort,  County Galway that provided an annual income of £500. Created a baronet in 1699, he acted as MP for Monaghan borough, 1703-09 while also serving in the army, rising to the rank of brigadier-general in February 1709. However, the following September he was killed at the Battle of Malplaquet.




The castle at Newcastle consists of a number of buildings enclosed within what remains of a bawn wall; among the more notable extant structures is a large vaulted hall and a circular tower, both relatively intact although much of the rest of the property is in poor condition. Quite when the castle was abandoned is unclear. One suggestion is that it was badly damaged in the late 1640s/early 1650s at a time when the Prendergasts were displaced. But the ruin of so many buildings in Ireland is attributed to Cromwellian forces that it is hard to know whether or not such was the case in this instance. Whatever the truth, the lands on which it stands were eventually granted to the Perry family, whose main residence from the early 18th century onwards was some ten miles north at Woodrooff, County Tipperary. In 1837 Samuel Lewis wrote that the old castle ‘forms a very picturesque feature in the landscape.’ Such remains the case today. 

Prominently Located




After Monday’s post about Tikincor Castle, County Waterford (see The House at the Head of the Weir « The Irish Aesthete), here are the remains of another early fortified house: Ballycowan Castle, County Offaly. Prominently sited on a rock outcrop immediately north of the Grand Canal, the building seemingly occupies the site of an earlier castle belonging to the O’Molloys but much of the present structure was erected here by Thomas Morres in 1589. Climbing four storeys to a string course above which soar a series of tall, slender chimneys, the castle displays more visible evidence of its fortified character than does Tikincor, having no windows on the lowest level and a number of bartizans along the roofline. Ballycowan changed hands c.1625 when it came into the possession of Sir Jasper Herbert and his wife Mary Finglas, who extended the building to the east and placed a plaque carrying their arms above a new doorway here. Seemingly the castle suffered damage during the Confederate Wars and their aftermath, which is when the south-west side of the building collapsed. Not least thanks to its location, Ballycowan remains one of the most familiar ruins in this part of the country.



Inside the Pale


The Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, otherwise known as the Knights Hospitaller, was a Mediaeval military order founded in the 12th century. The order came to have a number of bases, called preceptories, in Ireland, one of which was located at Kilteel, County Kildare. There seems to be some confusion about when this was established, and by whom: it may have been Gerald FitzMaurice, first Lord of Offaly, who died in 1204, or his son Maurice FitzGerald, the second lord who died in 1257. It must have been an important centre for the order, since three general chapters were held there during the 14th century. However, with the onset of the suppression of religious orders in the 16th century, Kilteel Preceptory was surrendered to the English authorities in 1540 and two years later granted to Thomas Alen, brother of Sir John Alen, Lord Chancellor of Ireland. Thereafter it fell into decay and little now remains of the buildings other than a few truncated stone columns, parts of a former gatehouse and the outline of a substantial enclosure. More impressive are the adjacent ruins of Kilteel Castle.





Kilteel stands on the boundary of the Pale, that area around Dublin which in the later Middle Ages remained under the control of the English government. Famously, in order to provide protection for its inhabitants, in 1429 King Henry VI offered a grant of £10 to every man within the Pale who built a castle over the next ten years. These castles, usually square or rectangular and several storeys high, are commonly known in Ireland as tower houses, and while they were being constructed prior to the king’s grant – and are similar to the Peel Houses found on the border separating England and Scotland – many of them date from the 15th century onwards. Such would appear to be the case with Kilteel Castle, which measures around 26 by 20 feet and rises five storeys to a height of 46 feet. The building is distinguished from many other examples by a curved projecting staircase in one corner and beside this a two-storey gate house with arched entrance. Immediately behind the tower houses is a large rectangular space, now used as a farmyard but perhaps demarcating the former bawn enclosure. An image published in the Dublin Penny Journal in October 1833 shows a two-storied gabled house, perhaps dating from the 17th century, on the other side of the gatehouse. Some of the outer walls of this building survive, sections of which are fronted with slates. 





Like the Knights Hospitallers preceptory, Kilteel Castle passed into the hands of Thomas Alen in the 1540s and his family appear to have remained owners of the property until the second half of the 17th century (although, according to Samuel Lewis’s Topographical Dictionary of Ireland, they were still claiming tithes there in 1837). However, repeated attacks on the building took their toll on its condition. It was raided and burnt by Rory O’More in both 1573 and 1574 but presumably remained in sufficiently good condition for the 11th Earl of Kildare to station 50 horsemen and 100 foot soldiers there in 1580 during the Second Desmond Rebellion. But in the aftermath of the following century’s Confederate Wars, the Civil Survey of 1654-56 could report that the parish of Kilteel contained ‘One Castle…wch in the year 1640 was valued to be worth sixty pounds butt being since ruined is now valued at ffourty pounds.’ In the second half of the 17th century, Kilteel Castle came into the possession of the Earl of Tyrconnell but following his support of James II the property was taken from him and acquired by the Hollow Sword Blade Company before being sold on in turn to Sir William Fownes. His descendants in turn disposed of Kilteel in 1838, by which time the old castle had long since ceased to be used as any kind of residence. 

The Real Deel



The ruins of the late 18th century Deel Castle, otherwise known as Castle Gore, in County Mayo have featured here before (see Sent Up in Flames « The Irish Aesthete) but rather confusingly the remains of a second, older building with the same name stand close by. The original Deel Castle – which might be classified as the real Deel – is a tower house sitting above the river Deel, thought to date from the 16th century when constructed by the Bourke family, then dominant in this part of the country. Like so many other such buildings, it is rectangular but larger than usual, of four storeys and with a substantial bartizan on the south-west corner of the roofline, above which rise tall, narrow chimneystacks. As is also typical of tower houses, there is only one point of access, a modest arched doorcase on the west side. It remained in the possession of the Bourke family until the late 17th century when, after Colonel Thomas Bourke had fought on the side of King James in the Williamite Wars, the property was forfeited and granted to Sir Arthur Gore.




Born in London, Paul Gore (created a baronet in 1622) had come to Ireland in the late 16th century in the service of Elizabeth I as commander of a troop of horse and eventually settled in County Donegal, representing Ballyshannon for a number of years in the Irish House of Commons. Arthur Gore (created a baronet in 1662) was his second son, and likewise both a soldier and politician, becoming High Sheriff of both Mayo and County Galway, and later of Leitrim. Having settled in Mayo, he received the Bourkes‘ former property, Castle Deel and in due course, his son having predeceased him, passed this to his grandson, also called Arthur Gore. When Mrs Delany visited the place in 1732, she noted, ‘tis an old castle patched up and very irregular, but well fitted up and good handsome rooms within. The master of the house, Arthur Gore, a jolly red-faced widower, has one daughter, a quiet thing that lives in the house with him; his dogs and horses are as dear to him as his children, his laugh is hearty, though his jests are course.’ The second baronet’s son, yet another Arthur, was created Earl of Arran in 1762. It would appear that the family continued to live in Deel Castle but towards the end of the 18th century, the estate was leased to James Cuff, first (and last) Lord Tyrawley who built the now-ruined house within sight of the old castle. Cuff’s mother Elizabeth was a sister of Lord Arran, which helps to explain why he should have been granted a lease on the place. Lord Tyrawley had no legitimate heirs, although he had two illegitimate sons by an actress, one of whom, James Duff, lived in the new Deel Castle until his death in 1828, after which that building reverted back to the third Earl of Arran. As for the old castle, it was occupied by Colonel St George Cuff, thought to have been the illegitimate son of James Cuff; the colonel’s wife Louisa Maria Knox Gore, was descended in the maternal line from the second Earl of Arran, making the family connection clearer. It was only after the colonel’s death in 1883 that the old castle likewise returned to the Gores and remained with them until after 1921 when the new house was burnt by the IRA and left the ruin still seen today.




As already mentioned, the original Deel Castle was a substantial tower house. To the east of this, possibly as early as the 17th century, an extension was built which was probably further improved in the 18th century. A bartizan on the south-east corner of the extension certainly suggests an early date, since it would come from a time when the occupants of the building would consider themselves vulnerable to attack. In any case, this section is of three storeys and five bays, with a limestone Gibbsian doorcase on the groundfloor. The outline of a gable on the eastern side of the facade indicates that a further building once stood here, perhaps to match that which still extends forward immediately beyond the tower house to the west, thereby creating a courtyard in front of the building. Little remains inside either the original or the later structure, the roof long gone, along with the various floors, windows and chimneypieces: the external walls alone now survive. This decay has occurred only in the past 100 years since, unlike its neighbour, Deel Castle was not burnt during the early 1920s but still occupied. Only afterwards was it abandoned, and left to fall into the present state of ruin.