Bawn

The National Monuments Service's description

A small rectangular bawn (ext. dims. 14.6m E-W; 6.4m N-S at E end tapering to 5.8m at W end; H 3.15m; wall T 0.8-0.83m) or ‘forecourt’, as described by Leask (1937, 284), was added onto the N front façade of the tower house (KK020-003----) known as Clara Castle. The bawn, which dates from the late 16th/early 17th century, clearly abuts the early 16th-century tower house at the N end of its E and W walls. Constructed of roughly coursed limestone rubble, it is heavily defended with 13 gun loops, c. 1m above ext. ground level. It is entered via a pointed doorway (H 1.93m; Wth 1.16m) in the N wall which is directly opposite the main doorway to the tower house. At the E end there are two gun loops in the S wall, one SE angle loop, two in the E wall, another NE angle loop and one at the E end of the N wall. At the W end there is one gun loop in the S wall, one SW angle loop, a gun loop on either side of the NW angle, one mid-way between the doorway and the NW angle and one W of and protecting the doorway.
A undated sketch by George Du Noyer (c. 1850) shows that the forecourt formed the ground floor of two two-storey structures, entered from the existing pointed doorway (Manning 2017, 82). The E building has a steep-pitched N gable while the S gable was attached to the tower house, evidenced by a roof scar in the sketch, as the roof had collapsed. It was lit by a window in the N wall at ground-floor level and by a smaller window in the N gable at first-floor/attic level. The W building, also two-storeys with a similar window arrangement, has a lower pitched roof which was still roofed in the sketch. There appears to be a chimney stack rising from the W wall of the latter building and the former presence of a fireplace there is evidenced by internal masonry infilling. The location of the ground-floor windows are similar infilled. The E half of the interior has a good quality cobbled surface in a diamond pattern, though this is interrupted near the base of the E wall by the foundations of an internal structure, possibly a hearth.
The sketch also depicts a single-storey building with cat-slide roof abutting the E wall of the tower house. The only visible evidence of this building are the tie-stones for its E wall (Wth 0.8m) projecting out from the external S face of the bawn and the cobbled surface of the internal floor.

See attached photographs:
KK020-003001-_01 N and W faces of tower house and N wall of bawn – exterior
KK020-003001-_02 W face of tower house and bawn - exterior
KK020-003001-_03 Doorway in N side of bawn – exterior
KK020-003001-_04 S wall of bawn – exterior
KK020-003001-_05 E wall of bawn – exterior
KK020-003001-_06 E wall of bawn – interior
KK020-003001-_07 W end of N wall of bawn – interior
KK020-003001-_08 Patterned cobble stones in interior of bawn – E end

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 6 January 2020

References

Manning, C. 2017 The Du Noyer collection and its archaeological importance. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 147, 65-90.

Leask, H. G. 1937 Clara Castle, Co. Kilkenny. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries 67,284—89.