Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

In level pasture, on E side of farmyard. Ivy-clad fragmentary remains of rectangular tower (9.9m N-S; c. 12m E-W); ruined 18th century farm building attached on S side. Recent demolition 'to make the yard of a milking shed' (Healy 1988, 45) has reduced N and W walls to foundations, and S wall to 1st-floor level, but E wall survives to 3rd floor; described in 1892 as having 'four walls....fast falling to decay....serves as a house for cattle' (Lee 1910, 128); photograph of c. 1910 shows N wall standing to 3rd floor, though probably originally a few storeys taller.
Surviving ground floor has inserted door in E wall and much-altered window near E end of S wall. Window also in S wall, at 1st-floor level, with segmental vault over embrasure, one jamb of single ogee-headed light survives. At 2nd- and 3rd-floor levels there appear to be window opes in E wall, now almost completely masked with ivy; one of these probably window illustrated by Lee (ibid., opp. 129) with double ogee-headed light, associated with two inscriptions: "BC" on inside of lintel, and "DCK 1590" on stone built into side of embrasure (ibid.); these latter probably initials of Donogh Cormac Mac Carthy (ibid.); and represent repair of building rather than its construction date.

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 3: Mid Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009