Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

Carrigan (1905, vol. 3, 292-3) mentions several castles in Callan, though these are difficult to precisely locate. According to Carrigan (ibid. 293), ‘Upon and inside it [Callan] there were several castles…a fourth stood beside the bridge [KK026-010083-] in Bridge-Street, on the sites of the Adelphi Hotel and the Dispensary’. Both the ‘Adelphia Hotel’ and the ‘Dispensary’ are indicated on the 25-inch OS map as the most northerly properties on the W side of Upper Bridge Street, immediately S of the bridge and continue to occupy the site. The former dispensary is a two-storey building and attached to the S is ‘Adelphi House’, a three-bay three-storey building. The Civil Survey (1654-6) for Callan describes the properties on 'South Street' which appears to relate to the main street running N-S South of the Kings River and includes Upper Bridge St. and Green St. (Manning 1998, 56, 70). It lists on 'Corporation Land', 'A waste castle on the gate called the gatehouse, 18 foot square' (ibid. 56). Manning suggests that this relates to the castle S of the bridge, on the W side, which is also depicted on a Down Survey map (1655-6) (ibid. 65, fig. 15, 70).
A 19th-century sketch of Callan (Miller/Robertson collection, RSAI) depicts a tall rectangular building, three-storeys with attic, on the S side of the bridge, which is taller than the neighbouring buildings (Manning 1998, 69, fig. 20). This may have been the castle, remodelled with later fenestration and roof.
It is possible that the buildings currently occupying this location also contain medieval fabric.

See attached:
KK026-010027-_01 Sketch of possible castle (Manning 1998, 69, fig. 20)
KK026-010027-_02 Extract from Down Survey map (1655-6) (Manning 1998, 65, fig. 15)

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 8 June 2022

References

Manning, C. 1998 The Civil Survey of Inistioge and Callan, Co. Kilkenny. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries 128, 48-73.

Carrigan, Rev. W. 1905 (Reprint 1981) The history and antiquities of the diocese of Ossory, 4 vols. Kilkenny. Roberts Books and Wellbrook Press.