Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

Westropp (1906-7, 220) recorded the following details about Garraunboy (Garrán Buí) Castle and bawn (LI021-070001-); 'Garranbuidhe (O'Donovan, O.S.L., 8, p. 250), "The yellow wood" (Fitzgerald, i., p. 253); locally the "Yellow garden." 1583 Hugh Wall, or Falltagh, of Dunmoylin, when he joined the rebellion, owned Garrenboye C[astle]. (Des. R., 69). 1615 Held by Ol[iver]. Stephenson, of Dunmoylin, and confirmed to Ric. his son (Inq. Chan., 15b and 24b; Pat. R.). Confiscated from his representatives, 1655 (C.S., p. 52).
Fabric - The O.S.L. only note it as "a ruin on a plain." It is an oblong peel tower 30 feet [9.1m] by 46 feet [14m], outside. The main wing had four wooden floors covered by a stone vault; there is a skew-loop on the second floor opening at the north-west angle, and another on the third floor at the north-east. There are numerous ambries and ogee headed window-slits. The end wing has the usual spiral stair with doors to each story to the south-west, and five stories with small rooms to the south-east. The lower rooms and top story are under vaults. All the southern face and most of the side walls of this part are gone. The peel stands in a bawn 63 feet [19.2m] east and west, 82 feet [25m] north and south. The walls 3 feet [0.9m] at top, and battered out to 6 feet [1.8m] below. The south wall and south-west turret are levelled. Turrets with vaulted roofs and 12 feet [3.65m] diameter, inside, remain at the three other angles. The peel tower dates from about the middle of the fifteenth century'.
The 1654-56 Civil Survey of Limerick recorded that Richard Stephenson of Dunmoylan, an Irish Papist, was the owner of Garraunboy which contained 'a ruined castle & bawne' (Simington 1938, 293).
Classified by Donnelly (1999, 22, 37) as a Type 1A tower house which consists of a castle where the; 'ground floor entrance to the building leads to an entrance lobby. To one side of the entrance lobby is a doorway leading to a spiral staircase set in a corner of the building. To the other side is a doorway leading into a small chamber - the subsidiary chamber. The entrance lobby provides a direct route of access through to the main chamber.' Castle and bawn described by Salter (2004, 83) as follows; 'The outer wall of the thick end wall of a five storey tower 14m long by 9m wide has fallen although the rest still stands high, with a vault over the fourth storey. Closely surrounding the tower are remains of a small rectangular bawn with four D-shaped flankers between 4m and 5m in external diameter. One still retains a vault and three gunloops'.

See attached plan of castle taken from Westropp 1906-7.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 3 December 2020

See attached ASI aerial photographs ASIAP – taken on 04/03/2006.

References

OSL - Ordnance Survey Letters. Letters written by members of the Ordnance Survey's 'Topographical Department' (T. O'Conor, A. O'Curry, E. Curry, J. O'Donovan and P. O'Keeffe) sent to headquarters from the field (1834-41). MSS in Royal Irish Academy.

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

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

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1929 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Limerick collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1841. Bray

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.

ASIAP - Archaeological Survey of Ireland Aerial Photographs (c. 1996 - c. 2010).

Donnelly, C.J. 1999 A Typological Study of the Tower Houses of County Limerick. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 129, 19-39.