Abbeyshrule Castle (in Ruins)

On the SE corner of the claustral range of buildings of the Cistercian abbey (LF023-113----) and within a graveyard (LF023-113016-). This four-storey tower house (ext. dims. 5.8m E–W; 5.4m N–S) is built of roughly coursed rubble and is densely overgrown with ivy. The S and W walls have collapsed and survive only to the first-floor level. The doorway was probably in the N wall close to the NE angle but this area is obscured by collapse. The partially collapsed spiral stairwell is in this angle and it accessed each floor level via a mural passage. There is a barrel vault over the inaccessible ground floor. In the E wall at first-floor level there is a plain, flat-headed ope and on the second floor, directly above it, there is a large fireplace. Also on this wall, at battlement level, are corbels supporting a chimney stack. This was almost certainly a residential tower probably dating to the post-Dissolution occupation of the abbey in the late 16th century. Compiled by: Patrick F. O'Donovan Date of upload: 6 June 2012

Abbeyshrule Castle was built in the 15th or 16th century, likely by a local lord associated with the Cistercian abbey at Abbeyshrule. It is important as a rare surviving example of a tower house integrated within a monastic and ecclesiastical site, reflecting the interplay between secular and religious landholding in medieval Ireland.