Mallow Castle,
County Cork

The old Desmond fortress on the Blackwater River at Mallow was granted to Sir Thomas Norreys who built a "goodly strong and sumptuous house, upon the ruins of the old castle, with a bawn to it about 120 foot square" sometime between 1593 and 1599. The style is essentially English and early Jacobean with its high gables, singlestepped battlements and large mullioned windows, but the place was well-adapted for Irish conditions with numerous loopholes for muskets. Mallow Castle held out against the Confederates but was severely damaged after being captured by Lord Castlehaven in 1645 and appears to have been abandoned sometime afterwards.

Mallow. NGR: W 562983.