Causeway

The National Monuments Service's description

Raised stone causeway built as an access route or road (LI032-031004-) onto Knockadoon Hill and Lough Gur Castle that was defended by Black Castle (LI032-031----) and the waters of Lough Gur which were lowered by drainage works carried out in the 18th century by Henry Baylee of nearby Lough Gur Castle (Bourchier's Castle) (LI032-022034-). The stone causeway formed the roadway leading to the gatehouse which formed part of the fortifications of the castle known locally as the 'Black Castle'. Access onto this stone causeway was protected by a castellated gatehouse located approx. 110m S of the curtain wall of the castle.
Only the N end of the causeway remains intact for a length of 43m, there are no visible remains of the stone causeway running SSE from the drainage channel to the destroyed gateway located approx. 60m S of the drainage channel.
The causeway was described by Fitzgerald as following; ‘It is solidly built of stone, 432 feet [132m] long, by 22 feet [6.7m] wide. It is 7½ feet [2.3m] high on the eastern, and about 10 feet [3m] on the western side. It was the only approach to the island; was defended by a castle (long since levelled to the ground, but shown in Dineley’s sketch) placed 77 feet [23.5m] from the head of the causeway. The foundations of this castellated gateway are quite visible, and are 23½ feet [7.1m] square. One hundred and sixty-two feet [49.3m] farther on is a very wide and deep foss, and 177 feet [54m] from this, at the insular end of the causeway, still stands the ruins of a fortified gateway from which a strong wall was drawn along the edge of the lake till it met the Black Castle’ (Lynch 1895, 246).
The gatehouse located approx. 105m to the S of the curtain wall and the section of the causeway to the S of the drainage ditch was removed in the early 1900s. The causeway and levelled gatehouse was described by O’Kelly in 1944 as ‘ The entrance was in this tower [gateway] and from here a stone causeway led out across the marshy shallows to solid land where there was a gatehouse, now gone. The causeway evidently stood above the level of the water before the drainage of the last century. Nowadays, the causeway can be followed only as far as a stream which marks the boundary between two farms. Beyond this point it was removed in recent years’ (O’Kelly 1978, 28-9; O’Kelly 1944, 27).

This monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 34/1976).

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 25 September 2018

References

O'Kelly, M.J., and O'Kelly, C. 1978 Illustrated guide to Lough Gur, Co. Limerick. Cork. Author.

Lynch, J. F. 1895 Lough Gur. Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society 1, 241-258, 289-302.

O'Kelly, M.J. 1944 A survey of the antiquities in the barony of Small County, Co. Limerick. North Munster Antiquarian Journal 4, 16-53.