Castle - Anglo-Norman masonry castle

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a knoll on the NE shore of the Rindown peninsula, just SE of the bay called Safe Harbour. Rindown castle is a Registered Monument but it is in a badly overgrown state and a report of February 2017 highlights the inherently unsafe nature of the monument.

The castle was begun in 1227 by Turlough, son of Ruraí O'Conor, and Geoffry de Marisco, the ward was probably not completed until the 1230s. O’Conor et al. (2014, 317) postulate that it is on the site of an earlier earthwork fortification, which would account for its sub-triangular shape. The castle was attacked by Felim, son of Cathal Crovderg for the cattle of Brian, grandson of Ruaraí O'Conor. The castle was attacked in 1270 and 1272, when it was severely damaged but repaired in 1273-8 which included work on the fosse. In 1299-1302 the hall was built, but the last reference to a constable is in 1327. By 1342-3 it was in Irish hands, after which it is not mentioned again until the 16th century and probably went into disrepair rapidly. The careers of many of the Constables are known (O'Brien 2009). In 1578 it was granted to George Goodman who made the repairs evident in the curtain wall. (FitzPatrick 1935, 177-80; Bradley and Dunne 1985, 70-4; Harbison 1995; Claffey 1978; Claffey 2004a; O'Conor 2007, 193-4)

Only the NW part of the keep (ext. dims. 19.1m NE-SW; c. 14.5m NW-SE) survives, consisting of one barrel-vaulted chamber (int. dims. 13.9m NE-SW; 3.6m NW-SE; H 3.9m) of an original two on the ground floor, with a plank-centred flat-arch (Wth 1.7m) leading to the destroyed SE chamber. A mural stairs (Wth 1m) in the NE wall gave access from the first floor hall in the keep, but only the NW wall with two robbed embrasures and a fragment of the SW wall survive.
The castle has a triangular ward (dims. 63.6m NE-SW; 34.2m NW-SE) with the keep on its longest (NW) side. The curtain wall (Wth 1.2-1.8m) survives almost complete at S with five inserted gun-loops at ground level. About 4m over ground level the wall was heightened and there are four relieving arches and three long arrow-loops identified on the outer face of the wall associated with the earlier phase. Two rows of putlog holes, at the top of the original wall and in its heightened section are interpreted as supporting hourds or projecting timber defences, which would obviate the need for corner towers (O’Conor et al. 2014, 318). When the walls were repaired in the 16th century four or five gun-loops were provided on the NW wall and five gun-loops were placed on the NE wall.
A hall (RO046-004017-), perhaps the 'new hall' built in 1299-1302, is attached to the outer face of the S ward wall at the W end. It is a rectangular structure (int. dims. 14.45m NE-SW; 5.6m NW-SE) of two floors which was entered at the first floor from the wall-walk level of the ward of the castle, although this wall is destroyed apart from a single chamfered doorjamb. The N end of the SE wall is rebuilt with three gun-loops at the ground floor, and there are four inserted gun-loops elsewhere at the ground floor, including one in a blocked round-headed doorway (Wth 0.8m; H 2.05m) at the S end of the NW wall. The first floor has a fireplace in the SE wall, and evidence of five embrasures, two in each long wall including one with a lancet window in the NW wall. This floor also has a round-headed doorway (Wth 0.7m; H 2.2m) with a long draw-bar socket (L 2m plus) in the N jamb at the S end of the NW wall. This doorway, which is above a similar blocked one on the ground floor is interpreted by O’Conor (et al. 2014, 320) as leading to a timber garderobe tower, and they point out that there is a platform beneath in the fosse to provide its foundation.

Aligned with the NW wall of the hall (RO046-004017-) is a wall or bank (RO046-004018-) (Wth of base 3m; Wth of top 1.5m; H 0.2m) that runs SW from outside the fosse of the castle and inside the bank of the promontory fort. This may be the wall breached in 1236 by Phelim O Conchobair when he failed to capture the castle, and it may represent an inner defence of the peninsula similar to the outer town wall (RO046-004004-).
The ward was entered by a gatehouse (RO046-002015-) towards the S end of the NW side. The gatehouse (ext. dims. 5.2m NE-SW; 3.5m NW-SE) projects outside the wall and has a complete outer rounded limestone arch (Wth 2.3m; H 3.3m) dressed with diagonal tooling. The outer pier has a portcullis niche, but the upper floor of the gatehouse which does not survive would have been accessible from the first floor of the keep which is just to the N by means of a pointed doorway from the keep, and also from the hall (RO046-004017-).
A drawbridge crossed the fosse (Wth of top 13.9m; D 3m) where there is now a secondary causeway (Wth 4m), and the foundations of an outer barbican survive as two grass covered cairns, that at N (dims. 10.6m; N-S; 9.7m E-W; H 0.5-1m) being clearest.

See the attached aerial images from SE (001) and N (002) and the plan after Bradley and Dunne (1988, Fig. 35)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of revised upload: 27 February 2017

References

O'Conor, K., Naessens, P. and R. Sherlock 2014 Rindoon castle, Co. Roscommon: a border castle on the Irish frontier. Chateau Gaillard 26, 313-23.

Claffey, J. A. 1978 Medieval Rindoon. Part 1. Journal of the Old Athlone Society, vol. 2, No. 5, 11-14.

FitzPatrick, Capt. J.E. 1935 Rindown castle, county Roscommon; with a comparison of the systems of fortification used in Ireland in the 12th and 13th centuries. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland vol. 65, 177-90.

Bradley, J. and Dunne, N. 1988a Urban archaeological survey - county Roscommon. Unpublished report commissioned by the Office of Public Works, Dublin.

Claffey, J.A. 2004a Medieval Rindoon. The Rindoon Journal 1, 35-42.

Harbison, S. 1995 Rindown Castle: a royal fortress in Co. Roscommon. Journal of the Galway Historical and Archaeological Society 45, 138-47.