Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

It may be one of two castles (see KD019-032---- also) in the possession of Roland FitzEustace in 1486 (Tickell 1960, 368). Stands near the top of a short, very gentle, N-facing, pasture slope, c. 100m SSE of a gatehouse (KD019-032----) and c. 110m SSE of Jigginstown House (KD019-033001-). A really small, almost square (ext. dims. L 5.1m ENE-WSW; Wth 4.65m; int. dims. L 3.3m ENE-WSW; Wth 2.85m), two-storied structure with parapets and a slightly projecting (L 0.9m) stairs tower at the N-angle is built of rough, rubble, limestone masonry with large, well-dressed quoins (wall T. 0.9m). The walls are not battered but taper inwards slightly towards the top. Entered through a partially robbed-out doorway in the ENE wall, the ground floor is lit by a double-splayed loop in each of the four walls and roofed by a barrel-vault (E-W) bearing traces of wicker-centring, under which beam-slot holes mark the floor line of a loft, which is lit by narrow loops in the ENE and WSW walls. The very narrow spiral stairs (Wth 0.6m) is accessed through a plain, square-headed doorway in the N corner and is lit between ground and first-floor levels by a loop looking ENE and, above, by a slightly larger rectangular window looking NNW, and between first-floor and parapet level by a rectangular window looking ENE and, above, a loop looking WNW. The first floor is entered through a plain square-headed doorway in the N corner. The floor is lit by two opposing, large, partially robbed-out, square-headed windows with traces of window seats in the ENE and WSW walls, and a blocked loop is visible in the SSE wall. A robbed-out fireplace with red brick mantle-supports in the NNW wall is serviced by a chimney which projects from the outer wall face, supported on two corbels. The battlement level is inaccessible, but lower courses of crenelations and gutters survive on the projecting parapet, and the stairs tower is also crenelated. (Vicars 1891-5, 58; Fitzgerald 1921, 388-91)

Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy

Date of upload: 10 June 2011

This monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 3/2000).

References

Tickell, E. F. 1960 The Eustace Family and their lands in County Kildare, Part 3. Journal of the Kildare Archaeological Society 13, 364-413.