Richard de Burgh was the conqueror of Connacht and his son, Walter, was granted the Earldom of Ulster in 1264. Walter’s son, Richard III de Burgh, the ‘Red Earl’, was the most powerful man in Ireland in his day, and closely linked to the court of Edward I where he was brought up. His children married into the great families of Ireland and England, in particular a double marriage with the Clares, Earls of Gloucester, the richest family in England and the builders of Caerphilly castle, one of the finest in Wales and a true rival to Edward I’s
Figure 56 Plans of gate houses of the later thirteenth century
Castles. It was to be expected that he would show his power in the building of castles. Two reinforced his power in Connacht. At Ballymote he marked his seizure of the lordship of Corran, now southern Co. Sligo, from John fitz Thomas of Offaly, in 1299 by erecting a major castle. Like Roscommon, it is not well preserved, for, although its curtain wall is still existing, only the ground plan and inner wall of its great gate house survives. Again, like Roscommon, it is sited in a low-lying position, suitable for water defences, and is a formal, if
Figure 57 Roscommon castle: view of the outside of the south-west tower
Markedly irregular, rectangle in plan approximately 40 m (130 ft) across, with a gate house in the north wall, a postern tower and angle towers, but also with towers midway along the east and west walls.
It is rather smaller in area than Roscommon, and differs in other ways. The gate house projects only to the north of the curtain, not into the courtyard. Excavation in the castle (Sweetman, 1986) produced two surprising results. On the south side, there was found to be virtually no moat, only a depression cut some 30 cm (1 ft) into the rock, which was, however, likely to have flooded and so appeared like a water-filled moat. It was also shown that the walls cutting the angle towers off from the courtyard were later additions, of the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries. In spite of this, the south-west tower, which is the best preserved, has a chase for the first floor and latrines at ground - and first-floor level, so there must have been a rear wall, presumably of timber. The two side towers also provided lodgings. The gate passage itself has now disappeared, with most of the front of the gate house, although the outer sides of the towers on either side survive at ground level. From these remains we can see that the chambers on the ground floor on either side of the passage were vaulted; the first floor was divided into two rooms, but the second floor provided a fine single chamber, communicating with the wall-walk.
Between Ballymote and Roscommon, and therefore between the English royal centre of the Five Cantreds, the remnant O’Connor lands and the John fitz Thomas’ manor of Corran, lies the castle of Ballintubber. Leask (1977, 69) ascribes it to the O’Connors, although Orpen (Normans, III, 204-5) had pointed out that it was found to belong to the de Burghs in 1333, under the name of Toberbride. It was presumably built by Richard de Burgh at the end of the thirteenth century as part of the extension of his power in the area, perhaps before his successful seizure of fitz Thomas’ lands. Like Ballymote, it is irregularly laid out, four-sided with angle towers, but with none of the sides parallel or of the same length: apart from north-west and south-west angle towers, it is in a poor state of preservation (Fig. 58). It differs from Ballymote in a number of ways. It is almost four times the area with sides around 75 m long, rather than 40 m. There are no towers along the sides and the gate house is definitely smaller than that of Ballymote, so that it is clearly weaker militarily. The angle towers are not rounded to the field but polygonal.
Curiously, the four angle towers are all different. The two eastern towers are now the more ruined, but were also the smallest. The north-eastern one is hexagonal to the north but squared off to the south, while the south-eastern one is a symmetrical hexagon in plan. The first was clearly a chamber tower, but the latter may not have been. The north-western tower is marked by punch-dressed dressings to the openings and the second-floor fireplace carries the date 1627. The rear wall dates entirely from this later period, as does the rest above the top of the ground floor. Not only is the gate house rather small (see Fig. 56), but it is also poorly preserved, like the rest of the eastern side. It is curiously a little off-centre to the south in the east curtain wall. In the last century, the west wall was better preserved and, according to O’Conor Don (1889, 30), what is now a simple gap could be seen as a postern opposite the main gate, as in Ballymote.
The south-west tower was clearly a fine structure. Salter (1993, 28) seems to argue that its rear was rebuilt in the seventeenth century, but it is difficult to see the evidence for this. He may have been prompted by the fact that the rear embrasures of the northern and southern loops have wicker-work centring to their vaults, but this can occur at contemporary buildings, such as Greencastle, Donegal (Waterman, 1958, 77): the southern loop has been adapted for use with a hand-gun. The tower is extended back into the courtyard, while there is a small annexe to the north, against the curtain wall. The main chamber on the ground floor has a fireplace but is otherwise plain, with three simple loops and no direct
Access either to the upper floors or the northern annexe. The first, and presumably the second, floor were reached from the courtyard up a stair in the south-eastern angle of the tower. The first floor had windows with seats, a fireplace, and access to an inner chamber or latrine in the northern annexe. The second floor was arranged similarly, but with two more loops, and apparently no fireplace. The tower thus provided three self-contained chambers for members of the de Burgh household.
The third of Richard de Burgh’s castles is Greencastle in Co. Donegal, known in medieval times as Northburgh; its construction in 1305 is noted in the Annals of Ulster. Like Ballymote, it was built to assert Richard’s power in the area, where he was attempting to benefit from the disputes between the O’Donnells, allied to the O’Doherys on the one hand and the O’Neills, allied the MacLochlainns on the other. Although in a sad condition like Ballintubber, its remains were surveyed and published by Waterman (1958), and it has been somewhat reinterpreted in McNeill (1980, 73-6), so only its salient points need be discussed here. Its design reflects, not a general acquaintance with the current ideas of the time, but quite specifically Edward I’s two castles in Wales,
Caernarvon and Harlech. The first provided the inspiration for the overall plan, an oval with a gate house at one end and a great polygonal tower at the other (Fig. 59); but more obviously for the use of polygonal towers, and for the use of two colours of stone emphasising the angles (Fig. 60). The detailed planning of the first and second floors of the gate house reflects the layout of Harlech closely, not just in the general arrangement of the rooms, but in such details as the positioning of the fireplace midway along the long wall of the main chamber (Fig. 61).
Domestically, there is evidence for the site of the great hall along the northern curtain, near the east tower. That tower provided rooms on at least two floors, each with access to what is probably a latrine tower attached to it. The gate house provided two suites, on the first and second floors, the second floor one being emphasised by the better quality of its windows. Each of the suites had a lobby or entrance room, a long great chamber and two private chambers in the projecting gate towers, with a small room between them. It is very tempting to see the gate house as providing accommodation for the Earl and his Countess on the second floor, and for an important visitor on the first. The east tower would accommodate his Steward, or the Constable, close to the hall. There is only one surprise in this fine castle, with its imagery and display of fashionable comfort, and that is with the actual gate house itself. The gate passage does not lead in to the main courtyard, but purely to a small space bounded by the rise of the rock. The courtyard was therefore inaccessible except by foot, up stairs in the rear of the gate house.
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