Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

Tower stands directly atop short cliff which forms part of S shore of Shannon estuary, a short distance W of Beagh Quay. Rectangular (8.35m N-S; 10.05m E-W) four-storey tower built of roughly coursed stonework in a lime mortar; walls are very slightly battered standing in N quadrant of 19th century courtyard (LI003-002007-) partially enclosed by a poorly preserved wall of 19th-century date (Ní Cheallacháin 2008, 1). Entrance doorway S-of-centre in E wall, missing its outer surround, gives access to short lobby covered by murder hole. From lobby a door gives access straight through to chamber, and a second on S side accesses base of spiral stairs; both missing most of door surround. Ground-floor chamber (5.8m E-W; 3.85m N-S) covered by rounded vault (axis E-W), and lit by single window in centre of N wall which has lost its light. Spiral stairs rises clockwise and is lit by small slit windows. It gives access at first-floor level, through round-arched door, to short lobby with murder hole in its much-ruined floor. Lobby gives access N into garderobe chamber and W to main chamber. Lintled garderobe chamber (2.6m N-S; 0.95m E-W) has two inserted gunloops in outside (E) wall; seat is set back in NW corner but shaft now blocked. Behind seat shaft of another garderobe is visible, coming from a higher level (see below). Main chamber (5.13m N-S; 5.73m E-W) has central window in N, W and S walls; all three in very ruined state. Second floor was entresol under wicker-centred vault which has fallen except for its springing courses. Chamber lit by single window in W wall with single square-shouldered light. Very ruined inserted fireplace in S wall. There is no access door so entry probably via ladder from below; corbels which supported former wooden floor still evident. At third-floor level is single chamber entered directly from spiral stairs via lintled door in SE corner. Chamber lit by five windows but little survives of pair in S wall and one in centre of E wall. Window in N wall has square-set segmental arched embrasure and double ogee-headed light missing its mullion. Similar embrasure in centre of W wall but light missing. There was probably a mural garderobe chamber high up in E wall, at level of roof over main third-floor chamber but this area no longer accessible. No trace of wall walks or battlements survive. Built against W wall of tower is a single-storey artillery blockhouse (LI002-002006-) divided into three stone vaulted apartments; at foot of N wall is level platform built over creviced cliff face. The blockhouse is the remains of an artillery battery covering the Shannon estuary built during the Napoleonic Wars (Spellissy 1989, 242; Donnelly 1994, vol. 2, 49). Beagh Castle was used as a coast-guard station in the 19th century. In 1863 the following account stated that 'in this vicinity also appears an old ruin called Begh Castle, near to which is an ancient burial-ground. There is likewise a coast guard station at this place' (Lacy 1863, 597).
Castle described in 1840 as 'a rectangular building, 3 stories high. The walls are standing and perfect; a few steps of the spiral stone stairs are broken, but it is still accessible to the top. A battery was erected at the west end of it. This was formerly the residence of the MacMahon family' (OSNB, Iveruss parish). In 1907 the castle was described by Westropp (1907, 156) as, 'A conspicuous tower on the bank of the Shannon. It consists of a peel tower (on a low ridge of horizontally stratified rock) with an outwork or large bawn (LI003-002007-) having three vaulted rooms (LI003-002006-), loopholed towards the Shannon. It measures 23 feet [7m] by 17 feet [4.25m] inside, and has three stories, the lowest being vaulted. The staircase is in the south-east angle; the steps are perfect to the first floor; the west windows are broken out or modernised, except one small trefoil headed slit. The tower is badly split to the east side, and has a later little enclosure on the river face and a natural cleft vaulted overhead with masonry'.
In 2004 the castle was described as following; 'There were vaults over the first and third levels of this tower measuring 10.4m by 8.2m but only the lower vault remains intact and the rooms over the entrance in the east wall are very ruinous, and the spiral stair in the SE corner has been damaged, although the top is still accessible. The fourth storey is arched over at each end. The second storey has remains of a fireplace on the south and a latrine in the NE corner. Three vaults (LI003-002006-) of uncertain date extend westwards from the tower and a range of later outbuildings to the south may incorporate or replace a bawn wall (LI003-002007-) cutting off the low coastal promontory site.
In 1572 an inquisition into the estate of the 'Knight of the Valley' (Knight of Glin/Edmond fitz Thomas) recorded that the said Knight died seized of 'the town and castle of the Behir [Beagh]' (Cal. Carew MSS, 435). In 1587 as part of the English Plantation of Munster Beagh Castle and other lands belonging to the Knight of Glin were granted to George Beston and Lancelot Bostocke. The land grant was described as following; the 'lands belonging to the Knight of the Valley and Thomas his son's lands, attainted, in Kenry, long waste and unpeopled, as are by us the Undertakers, whose names are subscribed, assigned and allotted for the parts and portions of George Beston and Lancelot Bostocke; sc., the manor, castle, and lands called Castletown; the manor of Cloveagh, otherwise Beaugh Castle; the castle of Court Rothery, near by Kilmallock; the lands called Ballinaghtie, otherwise Ballahaugh; the lands called Garroghloyne, and all the land called the Great Wood; to make up two seignories of 12,000 acres apiece' (Cal. Carew MSS, 450). In 1590 the above land grant was confirmed to George Beston and Lancelot Bostocke, the conditions of this land grant stated that the grantees were obliged 'to erect houses for 54 families, of which one to be for themselves, 4 for freeholders, 3 for farmers, and 25 for copyholders, Other conditions usual in grants for planting the undertakers in Munster' (Nicholls 1994, 111).
Two years later in 1592 the crown granted the above lordship including Beagh Castle to William Carter (Nicholls 1994, 187). This land grant included the 'lands of the town, manor, castle, and lands (611 acres) of Castelton, the lands of [Ardlonan] (400A.), Kilbride (369A.), [Cloughrane] (310A.), Ballilongford, Fahie (12A.) [with 20A. near] the Shenyne [Shannon] almost overflowed with water, the castle and lands of Beagh with an old chapel (254A.), Balvestin (282A.), all in the country called Kenrye and co. Limerick; the town of Kepaughe with an old castle, in Connillo (422A.), Ballicoghlane (80A.), Lismucky (153A.), Ballingowle (106A.), Ballincurragh, Cloughcutred (255A.), in the country called Connolaght in co. Limerick, possessions of Thomas Fitz Gerald, knight of the Valley, attainted, and (with others granted to Edmund fitz Thomas, of the Glanne, and his heirs) demised to the late sir William Drurie, for 21 years ending in 1599 (See 3277) who assigned to esq., deceased, whose brother and administrator the present grantee is. Also the rents following: out of Shanyvalymore, 10s. , Killaghe, 10s., Ballynymony, 10s., Higert, 5s., Ballynegowle, 20s., Ballynoe,10s. , Moye, 10s. , Ballyeahane, 10s. , Bally Jonickebane, 10s., Beolane, 10s. , Ballyvadir near Castlebeagh, 6s. 8d. Killyne, 10s., Ballygaugh, 5s., Dygen, in the tenure of Moreshe M 'Gerat, 5s., Irish money, amounting to £4 18s. 9d. sterling, all belonging to the late knight of the Glanne. To hold for ever, in fee farm, by fealty, in common socage. Rent £26 19s. 10d. English, for the lands, from the expiration of the above lease in 1599, and £4 18s. 9d. English for the rents; and . for every acre of common or waste land enclosed. Grantee may impark 150 acres. He must erect houses for 20 families—one for himself, 2 for fre

References

Simington, R.C. (ed.) 1938 The civil survey, AD 1654-1656. Vol. IV: county of Limerick, with a section of Clanmaurice barony Co. Kerry. Dublin. Irish Manuscripts Commission.

Salter, M. 2004 The castles of North Munster. Worcestershire. Folly Publications.

Donnelly, C.J. 1994 The Tower Houses of County Limerick, 3 vols, unpublished Phd thesis, Queens University, Belfast

OSNB - Ordnance Survey Name Books. Pro-forma books arranged by Civil Parish for recording townland and other name-forms and compiled in the course of the OS 6-inch survey 1824-1841. The name books also include minor names and incidental references to antiquities. National Archives of Ireland.

Spellissy, S 1989 Limerick The Rich Land. Ennis. O'Brien Publishers

Westropp, T.J. 1906-7 The ancient castles of the county of Limerick. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 26, 54-264.

Cal. Carew MSS - Calendar of the Carew manuscripts preserved in the archiepiscopal library at Lambeth, 1515-74 [etc.] (6 vols, London, 1867-73)

Nicholls, K.W. (ed.) 1994 The Irish fiants of the Tudor sovereigns during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Philip & Mary, and Elizabeth I, 4 vols. Dublin. Éamonn de Búrca for Edmund Burke Publisher.

Ní Cheallacháin, C. 2008 Report on Phasing Beagh Castle, Ballysteen, Co. Limerick. Unpublished report, O'Callaghan Architects, Limerick Co. Co., Planning Ref. No. 08/1901. Limerick.

Lacy, T. 1863 Sights and Scenes in our Fatherland. Simpkin. Waterford. London.

Hibernia Regnum: A set of 214 barony maps of Ireland dating to the period AD 1655-59. The original parish maps have been lost but the Hibernia Regnum maps are preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris (Goblet 1932, v-x). Photographic facsimiles of these maps were published by the Ordnance Survey, Southampton in 1908.

NLI, MS 718 - National Library of Ireland, Parish maps with terriers, showing forfeited lands in County Limerick, commonly known as the "Down Survey", executed under the direction of Sir William Petty, 1657, and copied by Daniel O'Brien, 1786.