Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

On flat ground to the N of a stream, commanding a river crossing c. 60m to the SE. Named ‘Riverville Castle (in ruins)’ on the 1838 edition of the OS 6-inch map, this rectangular tower house (11m N-S; 9.6m E-W) is reputed to have belonged to 'a Mac Hubert Burke' (Topgr. Files, NMI) and is probably of late-16th or early 17th-century date. It survives to a height of four storeys. It was built on a plinth (H 1.2m) of crude random coursed mortared limestone and the walls are of random coursed dressed limestone and dressed quoinstones; the latter have been robbed out at the SW, NW and NE corners to a height of 3m. A base-batter rises to a height of 5m. All four walls bear ivy growth and the E, W and N walls are almost totally covered with it. The original doorway, placed off-centre in the E wall, has been robbed out as has the external wall-face to its N. The doorway accessed a lobby with an overhead murder-hole. From the lobby, doorways led to the main ground-floor room to the W and to an intramural stairs to the S. In the main room horizontal gun loops are set into deep embrasures in the S, W and N walls, it is possible that they are later insertions into the original slit windows. None of the floors survive but corbel sockets indicate they were wooden. There is a stone vault between the 2nd/3rd floors. Above the 1st floor the stairs spiralled clockwise to the top of the tower but it is entirely broken out so access is not possible to the upper floors.
The 1st floor is divided into a main room with the subsidiary chamber housing the murder-hole to its E. A fireplace is visible in the N wall of the main room. Wall recesses are visible on various floor levels. The garderobe exit chute is visible externally at the E end of the N wall. A number of windows have been robbed out. The surviving examples consists of flat and ogee-headed single lights; two of the latter on the 3rd floor in the E wall are opposite two in the W wall. There are cross loops on the NE and SE angles at 2nd-floor level.

Compiled by: Olive Alcock

Date of upload: 26/08/2021

References

Topographical Files, National Museum of Ireland. Dublin.