DONJONS

Leask first identified six castles which he called ‘towered keeps’ (Leask, 1977, 143). He linked them on the basis of their being rectangular blocks, with three-quarterround towers at each angle and considered them all to be of the thirteenth century. Leask’s use of the word ‘keep’ is unfortunate with its implications of gathering together under the one roof all the major elements of the castle in a military point of last resort. Yet they are tower blocks and we may follow Dixon and Lott (1993, 95) in referring to them as ‘donjons’. The problem of relying on the plan alone is shown by Leask’s inclusion in the group of Enniscorthy (Co. Wexford), which is a sixteenth-century structure, similar to other towers of the same period. To this one might add other examples which share the same plan but not the date: Dunmoe in Meath, or Delvin in Westmeath; the former is most probably of the fifteenth century. Another, Wexford, is only known from early drawings. The four remaining examples are: Carlow, Ferns, Lea and Terry glass. Three have good evidence that they were built in the thirteenth century or just after. Ferns has elaborate windows as well as capitals to the vault of the chapel (Fig. 69), which may be placed in the second half of the thirteenth century (Leask,

Figure 69 Ferns castle: interior of the chapel in the south-east tower

1977, Fig. 34; Stalley, 1971, 26). Lea has a double trefoil pointed window, also of thirteenth-century style. An inquisition of 1333 refers to ‘the good foundation of a castle with four towers, 12 feet in height’ at Ferryglass (Cunningham, 1987, 145), which is a good description of the present remains. Only Carlow is without independent evidence of date.

Ferns and Carlow were centres of the lordship of Leinster, both before and after its division in 1247. Lea was in the Fitzgerald barony of Offaly, while Ferryglass was in the Butler lordship of Nenagh. The four castles were thus not particularly closely linked by ownership and none are particularly well preserved. Carlow had the eastern half demolished in the nineteenth century, along with the inner face of the western wall, leaving only half the two shorter north and south

Figure 70 Carlow castle: the great tower from the west

Walls and the outer half of the western (Fig. 70). Ferryglass preserves its plan entire, but is still no higher than it was in 1333; it was presumably never finished and we can say little or nothing about its first floor, which we can assume would have been the most important one. The basic plan of Lea survives, but only one corner tower and one wall and a half of the main block survive above the first, entry-floor level. Two towers exist at Ferns, with the foundations of a third, along with the two walls between them, and part of a third. Only at Lea are there significant remains of what surrounded, or was attached to, the structures.

Lea is the best introduction to these buildings. The donjon occupies most of an inner enclosure, which is surrounded by a wall pierced by plunging arrow loops. The donjon was reached through a simple doorway at the level of the ground floor, guarded by a forework and a machicolation in the angle of the wall and the north tower. The details of the openings, where they survive, are of fine masonry, especially the round-headed rear arch of the opening in the north-east wall at second-floor level (Fig. 71). The arrangement of internal access in the building is interesting, although it must be borne in mind that more than half is missing (Fig. 72). There is a straight mural stair within the north-west wall up from the first-floor entry, which bypasses the second floor and leads only to the third. It is not that the third floor contained an unimportant room, or rooms, directly accessible from the outside because it was for servants, for it has two double-light windows, one in each surviving wall, and both are set in fine embrasures. The

Figure 71 Lea castle: interior of the great tower from the south-west

Wall-walk may be reached by a stair from the third floor, but it is carried past the inner side of the tower on a squinch over the third-floor room: how this affected the roof is difficult to imagine, but it is all part of the careful provision for circulation in the tower.

Lea is notable as being the only one of these four castles where there are remains of more than the donjon. Not only is there an inner ward, but a large outer ward, entered by a gate house of standard twin D-shaped tower pattern. This shares with Kiltartan and Ballylahan the feature of having the walls towards the gate passage thinner than the other walls of the towers (Fig. 73). It was later blocked and converted into a self-contained residential tower, while a new gate was opened beside it. The rest of the circuit of the outer curtain is notable for its

Figure 72 Lea castle: plans of the great tower

Absence of mural towers, particularly as there are a number of angles which needed them.

The great tower at Carlow is of similar size to that at Lea (see Fig. 70). Both are entered by doors in one of the shorter walls, close to the angle of a tower, and the stairs linking the floors both run within the length of the longer wall. At Carlow, however, the door is at first-floor level, with only the one floor above this. The entry floor seems also to have been divided, for there are two latrines on it, one at either end of the surviving long wall. Ferryglass is again of similar dimensions, with a door in the same position, while the ground floor is divided into two spaces, though not vaulted. Although only the ground floor exists, two

Figure 73 Plans of the gate houses at Lea, Ballylahan and Kiltartan castles

Differences may be noted from Lea: the stairs are circular and occupy one tower, while the two southern towers are provided with thicker walls and more arrow loops. This last is probably connected with the remains of a gate attached to the southern end of one long wall; it may have led into the castle enclosure, leaving the two southern towers projecting beyond the curtain, guarding the angle and the entrance.

Ferns is different (Fig. 74). It is larger but, more significantly, nearly square, 18m by about 20 m (59x66 ft) internally, and rather irregularly laid out, with the east wall clearly not square to the south. The internal south-eastern angle is canted to accommodate the tower, while the northern part of the east wall is

Figure 74 Ferns castle: exterior view of the ‘donjon’

Stepped out at the junction with the tower. As Leask recognised in 1936 (1936, 171), the interior of the building cannot have been a single space. At the very least, the 18 m (59 ft) span from north to south cannot have been crossed by unsupported floor beams; there would have to have been an east-west line of supporting posts. In the centre of the east wall, at first-floor level, is a large fireplace, now much restored, which would sit across the line of any formal arcade: while it is possible that the restoration of the fireplace hood has destroyed the socket for an east-west beam, there is simply not enough room vertically between the top of the hood and the second floor above for any emplacement of a brace or arch in timber. Although the southeast tower floor levels integrate with those of the east wall of the main block, the second and third floors of the southwest one do not (Fig. 75). Also, on excavation (Sweetman, 1979, 218-20), it was found that the ground-floor level of the southern half was some 2 m (6 ft 6 in) higher than that of the northern.

The remains are clearly those of a magnificent castle which we should perhaps consider to have been four ranges around a narrow light well, rather than a building under a single roof. The windows on the first and second floors are finely carved, with good fireplaces at both levels. The south-east tower contains a chapel with rib vaulting, at a time when such things were rare even in Irish

Figure 75 Ferns castle: interior of the ‘donjon’, showing the different floor levels on the east and south sides

Cathedrals, with foliage capitals (see Fig. 69). Excavation showed that it was surrounded by a rock-cut ditch, at least on the southern and eastern sides, with the entry guarded by a movable bridge of some kind. This provision for defence was nullified, however, by the windows to east and south at first-floor level, two-light with trefoil heads.