Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

On flat grassland at the foothills of Killough Hill with good views in all directions. A well-preserved impressive tower house, former residence of Miler McGrath, Archbishop of Cashel (1570-1622 A.D.), which has been modified over the centuries and is still used as a dwelling house but survives almost complete with its original wall-walk and crenellations intact. The tower house is a rectangular four-storey structure (ext. dims. 10.6m N-S ; 7.5m E-W) built with roughly coursed rubble limestone, dressed quoin stones and a base-batter, with traces of external render still visible. The interior of the tower house has been heavily modified and no original internal features are visible. The original doorway in the centre of the N wall, now blocked up, led into a lobby area from which the ground-floor barrel-vaulted chamber was accessed. The lobby area was protected by an overhead murder hole. From this lobby, a second lobby was accessed which lead into the spiral stairs in the NE angle of the tower from which all upper chambers and the wall-walk were accessed. A possible bawn wall (T 0.6m) runs from the SE angle of the tower eastwards and has been incorporated into the 19th-century castellated farmyard wall. A tall gateway (Wth 2.7m; H 3.65m) in the centre of this wall may be the original bawn entrance gate. The chimney stack visible at battlement level on the N wall originally serviced a medieval fireplace in this wall. There is evidence of an ogee-headed window with decorated spandrels at first-floor level in the S wall, with later 18th-century gothic-style pointed windows also visible in the S wall. An early 19th-century annexe has been added to the W side of the tower house.

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 26 August 2011