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8-07-2015, 23:59

LESSER LORDSHIPS IN THE SOUTH

Elsewhere in Munster and south Leinster are examples of lesser lords adapting or expanding earlier enclosure castles in the late middle ages. One of the Roche lords of Glanworth castle provided it with a new curtain wall on the west and south, with angle towers at the north-west and south-west, somewhat enlarging the area of the enclosure (Manning, 1987). In the area so gained, he, or another, contrived a hall and chamber block by blocking up the entrance passage of the earlier gate tower and making a hall on the first floor, and by building on a high chamber tower to the west. The thirteenth-century hall-house was still retained, while the east curtain is probably later still, to judge by the gunloops. At Kiltinane, the thirteenth-century round great tower was retained, and the second floor saw later work, as shown by the two windows with ogee-headed lights; whether the whole second floor is a later addition is unclear. The curtain to the north was rebuilt in the late middle ages (Fig. 117). The north-east tower has gunloops at the ground floor, with a late door with wicker-centred rear arch, itself typically contrived in the angle of the curtain. The first floor provided a square room internally; the wall-walks of the curtains to the south and west were of a single building phase at this level. The gate was set at the north-west angle of the enclosure, a simple opening like that at Granny. Two angle towers survive of the de Cogan enclosure castle at Kilbolane (see Fig. 88). The stair and adjacent walling (marked by an internal break in the walling) of the southern one was repaired using wicker centring for the passage, while a vault was also inserted over the room using the same centring, in contrast to the plank centring of the western embrasure which has an ogee light. A similar vault was also inserted into the western tower at the first floor, while the windows have ogee lights.

Figure 115 Granny castle: hall, chamber tower and gate from the south-west

Both the halls of Castle Mora and Castle Grace have been mentioned already: both sites continued in use through the late middle ages. That the chamber tower at Castle Mora was added in this period is shown by the double loop in the southeast angle (Fig. 118). It provided chambers at four levels, with the principal room at the top, as shown by its two-light window and decorated fireplace. At Castle Grace, an ogee-headed single-light window was inserted into the west wall of the hall (see Fig. 91). The complexity of this wall at the northern end might indicate that it was rebuilt later than the main period; it provided a chamber at the end of the hall.

The remains of the castle of Fethard, Co. Wexford, are now walled up and inaccessible, but the main lines can be seen from the outside (Fig. 119): it consists of three parts. At the eastern end is a three-storey tower whose wide,

Figure 116 Granny castle: hall window

Blocked arches in the north and south walls show it to have been a gate tower. At the west end lies a three-part block. In the centre is a three-storey block with a cusped ogee-headed loop on the third floor. At the south-west angle is slender threequarter-round turret, crowned by continuous stone machicolation. There is a two-storey block to the north of the central one. A later hall with a vaulted ground floor was inserted to join the central tower and the gate tower; it was clearly added to both. Originally, therefore, the chamber tower with its attached turret and twostorey extension seems to have stood on the south side of a courtyard entered through a tower to the east.

Finally, in the south of the country are Ballyloughan, Co. Carlow, and Liscarrol, Co. Cork, two cases where earlier gate houses were extensively rebuilt in the late middle ages, and so might be included here. Two notes of caution need

Figure 117 Kiltinane castle: general plan and floor plans of the towers

To be sounded. The first is that the rebuilding is confined to the gate houses, and the work might be seen as being to convert them into free-standing towers beside an enclosure, effectively into tower-houses and bawns. Second, in both cases the work is at least possibly of the sixteenth century, or even later, rather than strictly in the period of this chapter.



 

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