Irish Castles, County Tipperary
Irelandseye.com continues the tour of Ireland, starting at the north east coast, with details of Irish castles. Now to County Tipperary:
Ballynahow Castle,
County Tipperary
There is something rather attractive about round tower houses, but sadly only a relatively small number were built, mostly in Munster. Perhaps the finest to survive is the impressive early 16th-century tower of the Purcells at Ballynahow. It stands five storeys high with two internal vaults, each covering two storeys; the top storey was formerly covered by a conical timber roof carried on squinch arches. Both the lower floors were dimly lit round chambers that were probably used for storage, though their size was relatively small because of the wall's thickness at this level. The three storeys above were larger and approximated to a rectangular shape, with ogival and segmental headed windows. One of the thicker segments of the wall was cleverly used to contain the entrance porch with its murder hole, the winding stair, the latrines and a number of other mural chambers. A number of small musket holes can be found near some of the principal windows.
5 km (3 miles) W of Thurles, off the Ballycahill Road. NGR: S 082602.
Burntcourt Castle,
County Tipperary
The magnificent shell of this great 17th-century embattled house derives its peculiar name from being burnt by the Parliamentary army on their march to Cahir in 1650. Cromwell himself mentions stopping at the "stronghouse called Clogheen, belonging to Sir Richard Everard", though there is a tradition that Lady Everard set fire to it prior to his arrival. This gave rise to an old rhyme saying, "It was seven years in building, seven years in living and fifteen days in burning." Sir Richard Everard - a distinguished Catholic Royalist and leading member of the Kilkenny Confederation - was hanged by Ireton in 1651, and his castle, quaintly referred to as "Burnt-Clogheen" in an inquisition of 1693, was never rebuilt.
The stronghouse was erected on lands granted to Sir Richard Everard by Charles I in 1639. A datestone recording the building's completion in 1641 was once placed over one of the doors, but now is inserted in the wall at the entrance to the nearby farmyard. That year Sir Richard and his family left their old ancestral castle at Ballyboy to take up residence at their splendid new home. Known at the time as Clogheen, it was one of the largest private dwellings then built in Ireland and comprised a centre block of two storeys over a raised basement with a gabled attic and four gabled corner towers - the whole building having no less than twenty-six gables. The large number of regularly disposed two-and threemullioned windows gives the building a quiet, residential air, but its basic design is defensive, notably the use of corner towers, which permits flanking fire along each face of the house. There are pistol loops in the jambs of the back door opening out of the kitchen in the south end, and also in the front entrance on the west side, which has a nicely cut hood moulding with celtic motifs around it, very similar to Monkstown Castle, County Cork. During the 18th century the artist Anthony Chearnley built a two-storey, five-bay gable-ended house in the bawn and laid out formal gardens outside the bawn wall. A number of engravings, based on drawings by him of Burntcourt, show the ruins as they are now, except that the chimney stacks were then complete.14 km (8.5 miles) SW of Caher and 6.5 km (4 miles) NE of Ballyporeen. NGR: R 951181.
Cahir Castle,
County Tipperary
Superbly set on a rocky island in the River Suir, this impressive 15th-century castle - the largest of its period in Ireland - was considered impregnable until the advent of heavy cannon. Described by one Elizabethan commentator as "the bulwark for Munster and a safe retreat for all the agents of Spain and Rome", it fell to Devereux, Earl of Essex, in 1599 after it had been battered for two days with artillery. It surrendered without a fight to Inchiquin in 1647 and again to Cromwell in 1650, but otherwise had a notably undistinguished history, which possibly helps to explain why it survives in such remarkably good condition today. Making excellent use of the rocky terrain, its layout comprised a series of courts which cleverly served as successive lines of defence, so that each ward or court dominated the one outside. The core of the castle is surrounded by very thick curtain walls, the lowest parts of which belong to the original fortress on the site built by Philip of Worcester in the 13th century. The massive wall-footing across the middle ward marks the south perimeter of this early castle, while the large adjacent building, known as the keep, originally served as the gatehouse, with a passage through the centre flanked by guard chambers. After this was converted into the main residential block of the castle in the 15th century, the gate was moved alongside, possibly with its original arch. The double machicolation over this entrance is largely an 1840s reconstruction, but the adjacent round tower, which served as a prison, may also have 13th-century foundations.
The present castle appears to be largely the work of Seamus Gallda (James the Foreigner), ancestor of the Butlers, Barons of Cahir. After the death of his father, the third Earl of Ormonde, in 1405, James Butler made Cahir his principal seat and embarked on a building programme. By 1599 the castle had reached its present appearance as illustrated in Pacata Hibernia. The only subsequent alterations took place in the 1840s when Richard Butler restored the castle and replaced the picturesque Irish battlements with more solid English ones. The great hall on the east side of the inner ward was also rebuilt at this time though its original form extended much further south; indeed, the main fireplace now lies outside in the open. The Butlers ceased to occupy the castle in the 18th century and built a house in the town, now the Cahir House Hotel. In the 1860s they erected a mansion, Cahir Park, in the magnificent parkland which adjoins the old castle.Cahir town. NGR: S 048248.
Carrick-on-Suir Castle,
County Tipperary
This castle of the Butlers - Earls and later Dukes of Ormonde - stands above the Suir and was acquired in 1515, though the oldest part of the castle is a mid 15th-century walled bawn with a tower house in each of its northern corners. Sometime after 1565 the tenth, or "Black", Earl of Ormonde, who spent many years in the court of his cousin Queen Elizabeth I, added a Tudor manor house of a type common in England but like no other in Ireland. The low Ushaped range of this house forms three sides of a small court attached to the old bawn, whose towers rise behind it. It has two storeys with a gabled attic, rows of mullioned windows and steep brick gables with slender finials. There are few defensive features save for small firing holes either side of the front door.
The house was a favourite haunt of the Great Duke of Ormonde, but afterwards it was deserted by the family although they continued to own it until the present century. Fortunately, it was never allowed to fall into complete ruin and in 1947 was taken over by the State, who subsequently conserved the building. Their most notable achievement was the restoration of the long gallery on the first floor of the front elevation, whose ceiling had largely collapsed. This delightful room, once hung with tapestries, has a magnificent limestone mantel bearing the date 1565, and stucco representations of Queen Elizabeth I flanked by Equity and Justice. The Queen would have felt at home in this room and in the rest of this house, which was probably intended, for she is believed to have promised her favourite cousin "Black Tom" that she would one day honour Carrick with a visit.Carrick-on-Suir. NGR: S 405216.
Nenagh Castle,
County Tipperary
The finest cylindrical keep in Ireland - known to generations of Tipperary people as the "Nenagh Round" - was built around 1200 by Theobald Walter, the founder of the great Butler dynasty of Ormonde. It formed the north corner of a pentagonal court with a towered gatehouse on the southern side and strong towers on the north-west and south-east angles. This has now vanished, save for fragments of the gatehouse and east tower, but the keep survives to a height of 100 feet. Its topmost quarter was added about 1860 by the Bishop of Killaloe in emulation of Windsor Castle - the original height to the wall-walk being about 75 feet. There were four storeys, including a basement, with a first-floor entrance giving access to a winding mural stair that was once enclosed by a protecting turret. The second and third floors have narrow loops with large embrasures for crossbowmen, but the top floor is well lit by four windows and was clearly the main chamber.
The Butlers remained at Nenagh until the 14th century, when they moved to Gowran and later purchased Kilkenny Castle in 1391. During the 15th century it was occupied by the O'Briens, but was recovered in 1533 by Sir Piers Ruadh Butler, later Earl of Ormonde. The castle changed hands many times before and during the Cromwellian wars, but after its capture by Ginkel in 1690, the place was dismantled by the Williamites. The Butler link was finally broken in 1703 when the second Duke of Ormonde sold the place to pay debts.Nenagh. NGR: R 865764.
from the Appletree Press title Irish Castles
Click here Irish Castles to buy the newly reformatted book from Amazon.co.uk. The previous edition of Irish Castles is also still available from Amazon.co.uk.
