Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

Caherconlish Castle depicted as a roofed tower house type structure standing to the SW of the church and graveyard in 1681 by Thomas Dineley (NLI, MS 392; Shirley 1858-67, 197). In this drawing the castle is depicted as a small multi-storey tower with round-headed entrance in E wall of castle. The external entrance to the castle was protected by a projecting box-machicolation accessed at wall-walk level. Possible angle-machicolation at second floor level on the SE angle.
Site of Caherconlish Castle described in the Urban Survey of County Limerick (Bradley et. al. 1989, 89) as following; "There are records of four castles in the town (Westropp 1906-7, 94), traces of which survived apparently until the early 19th century but these have also vanished. These appear to have been fortified town houses of the type which still survives at Fethard, Co. Tipperary, and at Ardee and Carlingford, in Co. Louth. The site of one castle is marked on the O.S. map to the south-east of the churchyard but no remains survive there and another is marked on the O.S. map to the north of the village. Another castle may have been on the site of Caherconlish House to the south-west of the village (Lenihan 1866, 727). There are also references to a "college" (Lewis 1837, i, 239)."

Compiled by: Denis Power

Revised by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of revised upload: 31 October 2018

References

NLI, MS 392 - National Library of Ireland, "Observations in a voyage in the Kingdom of France", and "Observations in a voyage through the Kingdom of Ireland", both by Thomas Dingley, 1675-80.

Shirley, E.P., Dineley, T., O'Brien, R. and Graves, J. 1858-67 Extracts from the Journal of Thomas Dineley, Esquire, giving some account of his visit to Ireland in the reign of Charles II. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 6, 73-91, 176-204, 289-90.

Bradley, J., Halpin, A., and King, H.A. 1989 Urban archaeological survey - county Limerick (3 vols.). Unpublished report commissioned by the Office of Public Works, Dublin.

Westropp, T.J. 1904-5 A survey of the ancient churches of Co. Limerick. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 25C, 327-479.

Lenihan, M. 1866 Limerick: its history and antiquities.

Lewis, S. 1837 A topographical dictionary of Ireland, 2 vols. London. Lewis and Co.