As with the castles of the earlier period, if we wish to discuss castles built by Irish lords, we should start with Carrigogunnell (Fig. 120). North and east of the remains of what appears to be an earlier hall was built a large accommodation block. It was in two parts: to the east two storeys of great chambers with large windows and fireplaces and to the west a four-storey chamber tower, the whole like the inner block at nearby Askeaton (Fig. 121). The chamber block also resembles Askeaton in its use of rounded angles to the rooms, not just to the stair (Fig. 122). The whole top of the rock is surrounded by a wall, without projecting mural towers, and with the entry through a simple gate without the elaboration of a gate house. The condition of the castle is regrettable, for this is, after all, a key monument, a first-rate Irish castle in Munster.
The de Burgh Earldom of Ulster and Lordship of Connacht was the major casualty for the English in the changes of the fourteenth century, with Irish or Scottish successor lordships in the first, and cadet de Burghs (Burkes) disputing the latter with a revitalised O’Connor kingdom. In both cases lands and major castles were left without their former English owner. In the north of Ulster lies Dunluce, dramatically sited on a rock stack connected to the mainland by a narrow bridge. Most of the present remains date to after its seizure by the MacDonnells in the late sixteenth century, but the enclosure itself is older (Fig. 123). It is roughly square, with round towers preserved at two of the angles. Because of the form of these towers, with their base batters, they have often been attributed to the thirteenth century and the Earls. The receipts of the 1350s from the lands of Elizabeth de Burgh, widow of John de Burgh and mother of the last resident Earl of Ulster, however, show that Dunluce was not the caput of John’s appanage, or even the caput of a manor (McNeill, 1980, 68-9; 136-44). His estates in Ulster were almost certainly centred on the castle and town of Coleraine, which he had been granted along with his other lands. The origins of the castle must lie after 1360, and be attributed to the descendants of the Earl’s mercenary Scottish soldiers, the MacQuillans, who emerge in the fifteenth century as the lords of north Antrim.
The outer ward of the early castle of Dundrum in Co. Down has again been attributed to the thirteenth century (Jope, 1966, 210). Like Carrigogunnell, however, the wall is thin and without projecting towers: the entrance is also a simple gate surmounted only by a box machicolation and without a gate house or even tower. At the south-west angle it is pierced by loops for hand-guns, which do not appear to be insertions. They are sited there to control the vulnerable line of approach, but may also be associated with a building later used as the core of a seventeenthcentury house. The whole of the outer ward is to be attributed to the late middle ages (Fig. 15). The top storey of the great round tower of the castle has a mural passage and chambers, some of which have vaults built over wickerwork centring, and others corbelled roofs. The use of both techniques has led to the assumption that the whole upper storey is late (Jope, 1966, 210). The great tower was clearly changed during this time: a door was forced through at ground-floor level to replace the first-floor entry, and it is controlled by an added box machicolation. On the other hand, the chimney flue and the internal floor system demand an upper floor, and the extent of later rebuilding may have been exaggerated. Clearly, however, the castle not only survived as an enclosure castle but was extended with the addition of the outer ward wall. This was not undertaken, as far as we know, by the English, but by the Magennises, who certainly controlled the castle in the sixteenth century.
The impressive Greencastle in Co. Donegal was likewise not abandoned in the late middle ages. It was taken over by the Irish lords of Inishowen, the O’Dohertys, who added a square tower to the north side of the castle. This is now reduced to the ground-floor walls alone, but it appears to have been a tower house: like the castles of Ballyloughan, Liscarroll or Greencastle, Co. Down, this may have been a case more of converting the castle into a tower house and bawn than truly continuing its use.
The evidence of the continuing use of the major castles of Connacht by the succeeding Irish is not found in their fabric but in the Annals of the late fourteenth century; in these cases all are quoted from the Annals of Connacht. During the thirteenth century the English castles appear most frequently as being captured and destroyed by the Irish (Lynn, 1986). This changes during the fourteenth century to records of their occupation and use of the castles. Some of
Figure 120 Carrigogunnell castle: general plan and plans of the chamber block
These are of castles on islands; traditional sites, such as Lough Oughter, where Magnus O Ruairc was held prisoner in 1390, but escaped, only to be killed alighting from his skiff at the castle of Lough Scur. The Rock of Lough Key, scene of thirteenth-century sieges, was used as a prison by Mac Diarmata in 1342. It is also mentioned as being captured by a dissident section of the Mac Diarmata, who bribed the garrison in 1401 but it was then recaptured ‘with great bravery’ the following year, which sounds less as if it were used as a refuge or prison, and more as if the castle was a seat of power.
Figure 121 Carrigogunnell castle: the chamber block from the south-east
The first mention of the Gaelic use of earlier English castles in Connacht is in 1340 when Toirrdelbach O’Connor was forced to take refuge in Ballymote (the Annals of Clonmacnoise state that it was in the castle there). The history of Roscommon castle, the key to the English royal presence in Connacht, is more interesting in the context of its use as refuge, prison or power centre. Again, the first reference to its use by an O’Connor is as a prison, when Toirrdelbach O’Connor sent his nephew Aedh there in 1340; in the next year is a confused report that the castle was handed over to Toirrdelbach after Aedh betrayed it to
Figure 122 Carrigogunnell castle: the private chamber tower from the north
Him. In 1342 Toirrdelbach was again in trouble in the north of Connacht: expelled by a confederation of enemies he tried to reach Mac Diarmata’s house. ‘At the causeway to the house’ he was ambushed, but rescued by Mac Diarmata’s men, and taken to Lough Key for safety. This proved insecure, so he was escorted by Mac Diarmata back to Roscommon, which seems to have been his main base. A later O’Connor, Toirrdelbach Ruadh, gave the castle to Ruadhri O’Connor in exchange for Ballintubber castle, another of the key castles of Connacht.
The background to this is the continuing dispute between the two factions of the O’Connors through the later fourteenth century and beyond: between the O’Connor Ruadh and the O’Connor Donn lineages (Cosgrove, 1987, 577-8). In
This struggle, Roscommon castle played a pivotal role. After the murder of the leader of the O’Connor Donn faction in 1406, Cathal O’Connor assumed its leadership. He was captured by O’Connor Ruadh in 1407 and a bargain was struck: he would be released in return for Roscommon castle. The bargain was not fulfilled and for the next thirteen years he was kept in captivity while the Ruadh forces besieged the castle. It was relieved in 1409 and 1413; in 1418 O’Kelly, on behalf of O’Connor Ruadh, built a siege castle opposite the main one. The situation was only resolved when O’Connor Ruadh and O’Kelly were both captured by the Clan Rickard Burkes. They were released in exchange for Cathal, who was allowed possession of Roscommon castle.
There is no trace in the physical remains of Roscommon castle to link with its days under the O’Connors, but equally there is no reason to believe that the whole castle was not being used. It was also clearly being seen as an essential part of the kingship of the O’Connor to control it, as it would in the feudal world. In this it moves further, perhaps, than the castles of Carrigogunnell or Harry Avery’s, which were not as central to their respective lords’ power. It is also interesting to note how here, or at Ballymote and Dundrum, a Gaelic lord was apparently wanting more than a tower for himself and his immediate household. In this, Dunluce is even more emphatic: the site may have belonged to the Gaelic tradition but the new building did not. This represents a major shift in the symbols, if not the reality, of Gaelic power.
The other side to this coin is in the Anglo-Irish world, where the period has been portrayed as one of gaelicisation of the great lords and their tenants. Clearly, the period did not see a shift away from the greater enclosure castles, for we can see them being maintained, added to, or constructed anew. The result, at Askeaton for example, is one of the finest castles of Ireland. It is surely significant, too, that the element which appears most prominent in this story is that of the great hall, the archetypical feature of the classic feudal castle. The continuing practice of the southern lords building castles, for large households like those of their predecessors, hardly aligns with a major shift towards the Gaelic life. For decline, we must look to the royal power in the east, where the financial resources and administrative needs had dwindled with the decline in power.
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