Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

A National Monument (No 629). Recorded in the Civil Survey of 1654-56 as comprising a castle, orchard and dove house owned by Edward Bermingham and valued at 'forty pounds'. A 1785 estate map names it 'the Seat of William Tyrrell Esqr.', in whose family it remained until 1988 when it was placed in State care. (Cumming 1991, 222-5). In open, gently undulating pastureland. The monument is abutted at W by a single-storied farmhouse and incorporated into the SW angle of an 18th/19th c. farmyard which obscures an earlier bawn (KD007-007001-). The castle is probably late-15th/early-16th century in date and is a four storied, rectangular structure (ext. dims. L 8.4m E-W; Wth 6.5m N-S; H c. 13m) with rounded corners and a gentle base-batter (H 1.5m), built of coursed, hammer-dressed, mortared limestone blocks. Jacobean-style chimney stacks, centrally placed in the S, W and E walls, (the first functioning, the latter two ornamental) together with Dutch gable-type battlements with drain-holes and projecting string course below, on the N and S walls, are 17th century additions. A pointed-arched entrance doorway in the W wall, with a yett-hole on its N side, is defended by a small machicolation above at third-floor level, and gives to a small lobby, with a second doorway opposite, opening to the main ground-floor chamber which is lit by two loops in broadly splayed embrasures, in the E and S walls. From the lobby a lintelled, intramural stairs in the W wall leads E to first-floor level, from where a spiral stairs in the NW angle, lit by loops, leads up the building, ending in a small cap- house. Floor levels are indicated by opposing joist-holes in the N and S walls, with no vaulting visible. First-floor level is lit by two twin-light windows, in the N and E walls, with a loop in the S wall, and there is a large garderobe chamber in the SW angle. At second-floor level the main room is lit by two loops, in the N and S walls, and by a twin-light window with hood moulding in the E wall. There is a fine, decorated fireplace in the S wall, and a second garderobe in the SW angle is accessed off the stairs. Third-floor level is lit by two twin-light windows with hood-moulding, in the N and E walls. (Simington (ed.) 1952, Vol. VIII 183-4; Sweetman 1999, 156, Fig. 131)

Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy

Date of upload: 10 June 2011

References

Simington, R.C. (ed.) 1952 The Civil survey, AD 1654-1656. Vol. VIII: county of Kildare. Dublin. Irish Manuscripts Commission.

Sweetman, D. 1999 The medieval castles of Ireland. Cork. The Collins Press.