House - fortified house

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a slight rise about 200m NW of the original extent of Manorhamilton town (LE007-085----) and separated from it by NE-SW section of the Owenbeg River. Sir Frederick Hamilton received a grant of over 5,000 acres in 1621-2 which he proceeded to increase, and by 1631 he had over 16,000 acres (Mac an Ghalloglaigh 1966, 59-60). He had undertaken to build a castle, which was probably not finished until 1636. In January 1642, Manorhamilton was besieged by Irish rebels under such leaders as Brian McDonogh and Owen O'Rourke or Teige O'Connor Sligo, who were encamped at Lurganboy. On January 30th they burnt the town but failed to capture the castle, and they lifted the siege on April 3rd (ibid. 72-5). In the following year Hamilton used the castle as a base for raids as far afield as Sligo and Donegal. Hamilton left Ireland in 1643-4 and died in Scotland in 1647, but the castle seems to have survived until it was burnt by the earl of Clanrickard in 1652 (ibid. 97).
The castle is a two or three-storey rectangular house (int. dims 20m E-W; 8m N-S), although most of the third storey does not survive. There are two wings (int. dims 7m N-S; 5.25m E-W) projecting on the N side which are not separated from the main house by party walls. The house is U-shaped and open to the N. The wings have a court (dims 8m N-S; 6.5m E-W) between them, but its S wall, which would have had the original doorway, does not survive. There is a sallyport which is partly below ground level at the centre of the S wall of the house. There are four slightly rhomboid corner-towers (ext. dims c. 6m x c. 6.4m) which have three storeys at SW and SE, but those at NE and NW have five and four storeys with the use of mezzanine floors.
The house had two large transom and mullion windows in the S wall at ground and first floors, but these are either robbed or blocked and there are smaller windows, either blocked or robbed, on the E and W walls. The NE wing was probably the kitchen as its W wall at the ground floor has a large robbed fireplace. The main house was poorly provided with fireplaces with only small ones at the S end of the E and W walls and in each wing at the first floor.
Each floor of the corner towers (int. dims c. 3m x 3m) usually has a window and two gun-loops, and some even have fireplaces. The corner towers communicated with the main house through lintelled passages (Wth 0.9m; H 2m; L 2m), but there are no garderobes or latrines in the house.
The structure is badly overgrown with ivy, and all the quoins, except those from two angles of the corner towers, have been robbed, as has most of the dressed stonework from windows and doorways. There is a plinth all around (H c. 1m) and string-courses externally over the ground and first floors. The corner towers have three courses of banded masonry only on their outward-facing walls over the first floor.
The house is within a bawn (int. dims 59m N-S; 37m E-W) defined by a reconstructed wall at W and remnants of the N end of the E wall. The interior is flush with the surviving top of the S wall (ext. H c. 4m), but there is evidence of corner towers only at SW where the W wall survives to three floors, and at SE where the foundations of a tower are visible. Elsewhere the bawn is defined by more modern walls, but there is no indication of where the original entrance may have been. Archaeological testing in the vicinity of the castle has failed to produce any related material, but an excavation (06E0586) inside the bawn has produced evidence of a cobbled surface in the courtyard and evidence of a basement within the castle (MacManus 2009). (Faughnan 1943, file no. 142; Stalley 1991, 74-5)
The castle has now been conserved, and guided tours can be had for a modest fee. See this web-page accessed on 03/07/2017: http://www.manorhamiltoncastle.ie/

The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Leitrim' compiled by Michael J. Moore (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2003). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

see the attached views
_1 from SW
_2 from NW
_1 NE tower from NW

Date of upload: 23 September 2008

References

Faughnan, D. 1943 ITA topographical and general survey. Ballinamore Library, Co Leitrim, (file no. 140). Unpublished.

Mac an Ghalloglaigh, an t-Athair D. 1966 Sir Frederick Hamilton. Journal of Cumann Seanchas Breifne (Breifne Historical Society) 3 (9), 55-99.

Stalley, R. (ed.) 1991 Daniel Grose (c. 1766–1838). The antiquities of Ireland, a supplement to Francis Grose. Dublin. The Irish Architectural Archive.

MacManus, C. 2009 Manorhamilton Castle, Clooneen. Post-medieval. In I. Bennett (ed.) Excavations 2006: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 314, No. 1209, Dublin, Wordwell