Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

The Sutton family held two cartrons in Carnagh in 1307 (Orpen 1934, 60) and they presumably held them at end of the 16th century, but the property had passed to a Matthew Forde by 1641 (Jeffrey 1979, 170-71). According to the Civil Survey (1654-6) Mathew Forde owned a castle in disrepair and 360 acres in the townlands of Aclamon and Tellarought in Carnagh parish in 1641 (Simington 1953, 186). The four-storey tower house is located on the floor of a slight N-S valley with a small stream c. 40m to the W and it is on the NW side of a NE-SW road.
The tower (ext. dims. 7.4m N-S; 7.3m E-W) is vaulted over the first floor, and has good quoins and a base-batter. There are murder-holes inside and outside the destroyed entrance towards the N end of W wall and the small entrance lobby led through a lintelled doorway to the ground floor chamber (int. dims. 4.15m E-W; 3.9m N-S) which has recesses but no lights on each wall, but the E wall is destroyed. A mural stairs in the N wall is protected by a murder hole at the bottom where it is entered directly from the lobby, and leads to a destroyed doorway into the first floor under the N-S barrel vault, whose only feature is a destroyed light in the S wall and two remaining corbels that supported its floor.
The stairs continue in the N wall to the second floor over the vault which has a destroyed fireplace in the N wall and destroyed windows in each wall, although there is no evidence of a garderobe. There are recesses at the NW angle to command the three murder-holes and two corbels from the ceiling survive on the W wall. A newel stairs at the NE angle with lights on the N and E walls leads to the third floor through a destroyed doorway. This floor has a window with seats in the W wall and a simple window in the N wall. From the newel stairs at the NE angle a mural stairs rises in the E wall, to the completely destroyed wall walk and parapet. There is a large opening in the S wall at ground level and the SE angle is destroyed above the vault.

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Wexford' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1996). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload/revision: 14 September, 2012

References

Jeffrey, W.H. 1979 The castles of County Wexford. Typescript prepared by the Old Wexford Society, Ed. E. Culleton.

Orpen, G.H. 1934 Charters of earl Richard Marshal of the forests of Ross and Taghmon. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 64, 54-63.