Dovecote

The National Monuments Service's description

In pasture, c. 140m ENE of Pottlerath Castle (KK022-003----), a medieval castle which was occupied in the 15th century but was levelled c. 1800 (Carrigan 1905, vol. 3, 433). 

A circular stone dovecote (H 4.5m; ext. wall H 3.77m to base of roof; int. diam. 5m; wall T 1m), built of roughly coursed limestone rubble, with a corbelled stone roof which is open at the apex. There is a projecting eaves course (projection c. 0.3m) at the base of the roof. There is a large hole in the upper portion of the SW-facing wall, with some collapse of the external stones of the roof above it. The roof is covered by a grass and a couple of small shrubs.

The dovecote has a W-facing round-headed doorway (H 1.81m; Wth 0.75m) with cut limestone jambs. The round head of the doorway is chamfered externally, both sides terminating in a broach stop. The chamfer is decorated with three lines of continuous punch-tooling. 

Internally there are c. 350 nesting boxes in the wall. While there is some variety in the size of the nesting boxes (H 0.18-0.22m; Wth 0.17-0.24m; D 0.35m), the average box is 0.18m high, 0.18m wide and 0.35m deep, The floor is level and is c. 0.3m below the base of the doorway. The dovecote is likely to be contemporary with the medieval castle, the pigeons providing both food for the table and manure for the garden.

See attached photographs:
KK022-029----_01 General external view
KK022-029----_02 Interior showing nesting niches

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly