Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

Located on the E facing slope of rising ground in upland area. Three storey high Tower house (ext. dims. 13.2m N-S; 10m E-W; wall T 2.2m) built with roughly coursed rubble with crenellated wall-walk. The W face of the tower has been heavily modified by the insertion of a Georgian door and facade with the interior of the building severely altered over the years. Originally the Tower house had a two ordered door on the S wall with chamfered stops, the top half of which is now missing and was defended by a machicolation at wall walk level. Inside the door to the E there is a barrel vaulted guard room with wicker work centring still evident. This room is accessed by a two centred doorway with hanging eye inside. Opposite this room is the mural passage leading to a spiral stairs in the SW angle of the building from which all rooms are accessed. The ground floor has been heavily modified while at first floor level there is a barrel vaulted roof with a fine toggled fireplace in the NE corner. There is a small loft between first floor and barrel vault which is accessed from the main stairs. Above the vault at second floor level there is a large room which has a fine two centred doorway with hanging eye and a bolt hole box-like structure protruding from the face of the wall. Several later inserted windows in the four walls of this room have finely punch dressed jambs. A door in the NW angle gives access to a bartizan and mural passage in the N wall which gave access to the destroyed Jacobean house which was attached to the N face of the tower. Only the diagonal shaped chimney stacks and fireplace are all that remains of this building. In the NE angle of the second floor there is a large hole in the E splay of the N window which is a possible garderobe although locals believe it to be a dungeon. From the second floor the wall walk is accessed with lintelled mural passage at each gable leading to the open wall walk on E and W side. Above the second floor there is a small ante chamber and chamber which are accessed off the spiral stairs in the SW angle. The ante chamber has a narrow slit window with slop stone under, while the barrel vaulted chamber appears to have been the pantry. A later Georgian house was constructed around the core of the Jacobean house giving it its modern appearance today. Overall the tower house would appear to be a late 16th-century tower house with 17th-century house (OF039-047001-) to N with later Georgian alterations. O' Carroll castle captured by the English in 1557 and given to the Darby family in the 17th-century. Bawn area (OF039-047002-) to S, W and N of castle with natural cliff edge on the E side. Bawn wall appears to have been greatly modified by the landscaping and rebuilding in the 18th century (Cooke 1875, 216-21).

Monument placed on the Register of Historic Monuments on the 15 April 1976.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 15 May 2006

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Offaly' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload: 23 May 2011

References

Cooke, T.L. 1875 The early history of the town of Birr. Dublin. Robertson.