Irish Castles, County Kilkenny
Irelandseye.com continues the tour of Ireland, moving along the south coast from the east, with details of Irish castles. Now to County Kilkenny:
Burnchurch Castle
Many tower houses have an abundance of mural chambers and passages hidden away within their walls, though few have the number and complexity of those found in the early 16th-century castle of the Burncourt FitzGeralds. This well-preserved tower house, occupied until 1817, has four storeys beneath a vault with the principal chamber above, lying just below a gabled roof. Apart from its mullioned windows, this chamber is noteworthy for its finely carved chimney-piece; it has a tall, round chimney, while the roof's gable walls have been extended so that both ends of the tower are carried up an extra stage to provide high battlemented fighting platforms.A great hall was formerly attached to the tower's outside wall, but this has now vanished, as has most of the bawn. A curved outside staircase still provides access to the three upper floors of this little tower.
6.5 km (4 miles) SW of Kilkenny off the Clonmel Road. NGR: N 472474.
Clara Castle
Anyone with a serious interest in Irish tower houses is sure to be familiar with this well-preserved example, which still retains many of its original oak doors and floor beams. Its survival owes much to having been continuously occupied from the early 16th century, when built by the Shortall family, until the early part of the present century. The building has four storeys below a vault with a hall, and the entrance leads into a small lobby with a murder hole above. A winding stair occupies the north-east angle of the tower, and a door leads into a dimly lit square room, doubtless used as a store.On the second floor, in what must have been the lord's chamber, there is a fine hooded chimney-piece, as well as a mural passage, latrine and a small room to the north, probably a bedroom. More sleeping room was available in the floor above, lying just beneath the vault, where there is also a remarkable secret chamber or strong box only reached through an opening masquerading as a lavatory seat off the top floor chamber. This latter chamber, the largest and best-lit room in the castle, was used for general family living. Its large lintelled fireplace is a secondary insertion, so the fireplace in this room must originally have been in the centre of the floor. The small window beside the fireplace has a sink or slop-stone below, suggesting that dishes were washed and perhaps food was cooked up here. The roof above is a modern erection, while the parapets, which are crenellated in the Irish fashion, are pierced by a large number of pistol- or musket-loops.
9.5 km (6 miles) NE of Kilkenny on a minor road 3 km (2 miles) off the main Carlow Road. NGR: N 573579.
Granagh Castle
Founded by the Le Poer family in the late 13th century, the castle stands dramatically on the north bank of the River Suir just above Waterford. After the attainder and execution for treason of Eustace FitzArnold Le Poer, the castle was granted in 1375 to James, second Earl of Ormonde, whose family retained possession until 1650, when it was captured by the Cromwellian regicide, Colonel Axtel, and subsequently dismantled.The castle comprised a large, square, walled enclosure with cylindrical corner towers. The landward side was later rebuilt by the Butlers of Ormonde, but the old river façade survives complete with its south-west tower, parts of the north-east tower, the connecting curtain wall and latrines. An adjacent walled enclosure has now largely disappeared, save for a riverside drum tower. In the late 14th century the Butlers built a tall tower house in the north corner of the old castle and this was truncated later in the 15th century by a two-storey hall block built against it. The latter has vestiges of beautifully sculpted ornamentation, including an angel holding the Butler arms which decorates the inside arch of the window from which Margaret, the great Countess of Ormonde, hung rebels.
3 km (2 miles) NW of Waterford on the Carrick-on-Suir Road. NGR: S 171145.
Kilkenny Castle
The imposing ancestral castle of the Ormonde Butlers stands in the south-east corner of the medieval city of Kilkenny in a magnificent location over the River Nore. This great Norman castle has undergone many alterations over the centuries. Strongbow built a castle here as early as 1172 but this structure was destroyed by Donald O'Brien, King of Thomond. It was rebuilt between 1204 and 1213 by Strongbow's son-in-law and successor, William Marshall, Earl of Pembroke. The shape of his superb "keepless" castle - built to a trapezoidal plan with massive drum towers - has been largely preserved despite the many subsequent reconstructions. Excavations in the 1990s indicate that Strongbow's fort determined the basic outline of Marshall's fortress.After the death of Earl Marshall, the castle was assigned to his eldest daughter and passed through her to the Despencers, who did not reside in Ireland. Parliament often met in the castle during the 14th century, which in 1307 comprised "a hall, four towers, a chapel, a motte, and divers other houses necessary to the castle". In 1391 it was sold to the Butlers, Earls of Ormonde, who after the Restoration of 1660 carried out a major rebuilding of the old castle after it had been damaged in Cromwell's siege of 1650.
Except for the classical-style gateway, the whole castle was again rebuilt during the 1820s in an uncompromisingly feudal-revival style for the first Marquess of Ormonde. Largely the creation of William Robertson, the building owes more to the spirit of romance than to historical accuracy. Nonetheless, it retains portions of earlier buildings, including the basic plan and shape of the great medieval fortress - a castle that has served as a princely residence for over eight centuries and played a major role in the country's history. As befitting a potentate of enormous wealth and power, the new castle was erected on an impressive scale.
According to tradition, its remodelling came about in 1826 when the Kilkenny architect William Robertson, who had been walking in the castle courtyard with Lady Ormonde, suddenly paused and pointed out that the main wall was out of alignment and consequently unsafe. This observation gave him the commission to rebuild the castle on a massive scale; as the Marquess of Ormonde was one of Ireland's richest landlords, no expense was spared. The building of sham castles was all the rage at the time, so it was hardly surprising that Robertson should have chosen to recreate the romantic appearance of the medieval castle. He duly swept away all of the first Duke's charming buildings, fortunately leaving the second Duke's classical gateway. The castle that emerged was externally a rather grim essay in neofeudalism and internally distinguished only by its dullness.
Subsequent alterations to the castle from 1859 to 1862 by Benjamin Woodward and Thomas Deane improved the castle, though it was always the magnificent collection of tapestries, portraits, furniture and above all the famous Ormonde gold plate which redeemed the dark rooms of the interior. It was therefore a tragedy when the contents were sold in 1935 when the Ormondes ceased to live in the castle, bringing to an end the centuries-old occupation. In 1967 the sixth Marquess gave the castle to a local preservation society who two years later transferred it to the State to be restored and managed on behalf of the nation.
Extensive restoration began in 1973, but as yet only portions of the castle are open to the public. This includes the hall, which retains its fine 18th-century flagged floor and walls that were once covered with gilded Spanish leather, while its elaborate ceiling is a modern replica of the original.
The great mahogany staircase brings the visitor to the dining-room, located in the circular north-east tower with its 12-foot-thick walls; a further set of stairs winds upwards to a corridor leading to the principal restored room of the castle - the picture gallery. Occupying the entire length of the castle's east wing, it measures 150 feet long, 27 feet wide and 30 feet high to the apex of the hammer-beamed roof. Between 1859 and 1862 Benjamin Woodward introduced a partly glazed roof so that this immense space could be lit, while John Hungerford Pollen painted the roof trusses in the pre-Raphaelite style. Pollen was also responsible for the white Carrara marble double chimney-piece which he carved himself, complete with a series of bas-reliefs illustrating important events in the Butler family history. The walls of this room are again lined with pictures, and although these are but a few compared to the 184 paintings it once contained, some of the magic and grandeur of this room has now been restored.
Kilkenny city. NGR: S 509557.
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.
