Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

Incorporating the SE angle tower of the curtain wall of a 14th-century Anglo-Norman castle (LF021-050002-). In 1621/2 during the Plantation of Longford, George Calvert was granted 'the castle, town and lands of Ulfeede, 295a arable and 272a bog and wood in the barony of Rathclyn' (Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I, 529). This roughly square-shaped, three-storey tower house (ext. dims. 6.4m ENE-WSW; 6m NNW-SSE; wall T 2.1m) is built of roughly coursed limestone with alternating quoin stones of cut limestone. Only the E wall survives intact as well as sections of the adjoining N and S walls. The original doorway, now destroyed, was located in the W wall and it was accessed from the interior of the of the earlier castle. There is evidence of a mural stairs in the SW angle at ground-floor level from which the first floor was accessed. There is a high barrel vault (H 3.85m), with evidence of wicker-centring, over the small, narrow, ground-floor chamber (int. dims. 3.06m N-S; 3.1m E-W). One narrow single-light window is located in the centre of the S wall. At first-floor level, in the centre of the E wall, are the remains of a broken-out window. A doorway in its N embrasure leads to a mural stairs in the NE angle that accesses the second floor. There appears to have been a vaulted loft space directly over the first floor with a larger chamber above this at second-floor level. Remains of the curtain wall, which act as a bawn wall, run off the N and W walls.

Compiled by: Patrick F. O'Donovan

Date of upload: 1 June 2012