This small castle is a tower house. It stands in a small yard protected by a small iron gate, but you can jump over it with ease even when it's closed.
The castle was built by a wealthy family in 15th or 16th century, it has three storeys and an inner spiral stairs from the ground level to the battlements. The amazing thing about this castle is its corbelled roof. It was made by stacking flat stones one above another until only one stone closes the stack, and it's the same type of construction that was used for the huge megalithic tombs of the Boyne Valley five thousands years before.
UPDATE: June 15th, 2015 - We returned to this area so we took the chance to re-visit this castle. This time a sign read that the keys were available at the nearby house upon a deposit, so we were able to go up to the roof.
The spiral stairs have a total of 45 steps, 7 of them go up clockwise, the other 38 turn counter clockwise. All of the steps are rather safe. There are two pointed arch doorways on the southeast (120°) side, one leads to the spiral stairs, the other one goes to two vaulted rooms. The corbelled roof is the most interesting feature of this tower house, which was originally surrounded by a bawn wall no longer in place.
The castle was built by a wealthy family in the 15th or 16th century. It was then repaired in 1641 by the Brabazon family. At that time the famous antiquarian James Ussher, an Archbishop, lived nearby.
All the photos bar the first one are from this second visit.
|