Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

On level ground in gently undulating terrain. A two-storey farmhouse has been built up against the W wall of the tower house. A stone farm building is built partially in the E end of the ground floor of the tower house and extends eastwards. A concrete farm building extends N of the tower house from its N wall. The Ormond Deeds of 1508 mentions 'Caslan Coyen' (Curtis 1935, vol. 3, 336). Described in the Civil Survey (1654-6) as 'the stump of a castle' (Simington 1931, vol. 1, 323), 'Thomas Butler of Castle Coyne gent. Irish Papist'is listed as proprietor' (ibid.). According to the OS Letters, by 1840 the tower house had already been 'demolished above to the height of about twenty feet [6m] which at present remains of the west, north and south walls, the east one being entirely razed to the ground, and as appears, a part of the north one towards the east side. The thickness of the south wall at a doorway placed on it is four feet nine inches [1.42m]. This doorway was pointed and built of chiselled limestone and is at present twelve feet [3.65m] in height. The pointed top remains and the sides have been destroyed' (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 2, 123-4). The roof of the vault was grass covered and on it linens were laid for bleaching (ibid.). On the E side there was 'a thatched building not equal in height with the ruin, and which is used as a barn. At the west side is a thatched building too, which is a farmer's residence' (ibid.). The tower house now is in poor condition (ext. dims. 6.93m N-S; currently 13m E-W but originally longer; wall T 1.35m), only surviving up to the barrel-vault over the ground-floor loft. It was built of limestone rubble, randomly coursed, with well cut block and start quoins at the SW angle. The E end of the tower house is gone, and a large break has been knocked through the S wall from the ground floor up into the vault. The tower house was entered through a now broken out doorway at the W end of the S wall and led into a lobby area. All that remains is the drawbar-hole on the W side (D 1.55m). No windows survive at ground-floor level. There is a horizontal loop, chamfered externally, at the E end of the N wall, which has been crudely blocked. The loft was supported by a wooden floor carried on corbels in the N and S walls. At a higher level on the N wall there is a row of four corbels, all broken, which are probably a later insert. The loft was lit by a single-light window in the N wall. The partially destroyed mural stairs rose W of the doorway and turned in the SW angle to rise along the W wall (stair Wth 1m) and turned again in the NW angle to rise along the N wall. The ground-floor SW angle of the stairs is well-defended by three, now blocked, gun-loops in a niche, two splayed on either side of a centrally placed horizontal loop. The stairs at the NW angle is lit by a single loop in a splayed embrasure and, immediately below and slightly to the W of the window sill, there is a gun-loop with a semi-circular ope. A garderobe chute exits at the W end of the S wall, 0.85m above ext. ground level. The tower house has been utilised as an outbuilding, with a concrete plinth inserted inside in the N half, E of the gap in the S wall. Animal pens divided by concrete walls have been constructed on the plinth, up against the internal N wall. A raised concrete platform with concrete steps up to it is against the S interior wall, E of the gap in the S wall. A portion of the N wall towards the E end has been crudely broken through to give access to an adjoining N shed. A concrete cylindrical tank rests on a concrete wall immediately W of the gap in the S wall and on blocks in the SW angle of the stairs.

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of revised upload: 23 September 2014

References

Simington, R.C. (ed.) 1931 The Civil survey, AD 1654-1656. Vol I: county of Tipperary: eastern and southern baronies. Dublin. Irish Manuscripts Commission.

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1930 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Tipperary collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1840. Bray.

Curtis, E. (ed.) 1935 Calendar of Ormond Deeds 1413-1509 A.D. Vol. 3. Dublin. The Stationery Office.