Castle in Ruins in Synone

In grassland atop a low rise of ground, with good views in all directions. A possible ringfort (TS053-036----) lies 120m to the S. In the 19th century, skeletons were found in the fields near the tower house and a helmet was also found nearby (Lewis 1937, 53). Described in the Civil Survey (1654-6) as an old ruined castle whose proprietor in 1640 was listed as Sir William St. Leger, Lord president of Munster (Simington 1931, vol. 1, 216). A circular four-storey high tower house (ext. diam. 9.25m, wall T 2.3m) built with limestone rubble, roughly coursed, with a slight base-batter and battlements. The original pointed entrance in the W face was blocked in the 19th century (White 1892, 12). It opened into a lobby area which was protected by an overhead murder-hole, accessed from the first floor, with a guard chamber off the lobby to the S. Access to the main chamber was directly to the E and access to a second lobby to the N. This second lobby area leads to a spiral stair in the N wall, providing access to the upper floors, and also provides a second access to the ground-floor chamber. The ground floor chamber (int. diam. 3.45m) is circular in plan and lit by three flat-headed single-light windows, set into large embrasures with musket loops either side of the window openings, located at E, SE and SW. The E window has been converted into a ground-floor doorway, probably in the 19th century (White 1892, 12). The first-floor chamber, accessed from the spiral stairs in the N wall, was carried on wooden beams, is lit by two round-headed single-light windows, at S and W, and has a fine stone vault over. Above the vault the second floor (int. dims 4.85m N-S; 4.8m E-W) is square in plan, with a fireplace S of centre in the E wall, a wide ogee-headed window N of centre in the W wall and a wide round-headed window in the S wall. There is good evidence of internal wall render and two large niches W of centre in the N wall and another W of centre in the S wall. A flat-headed doorway in the NE angle leads into an L-shaped garderobe chamber in the E wall, lit by a slit-ope with slop-stone beneath. The third floor also contains a fireplace S of centre in the E wall and windows in the centre of the S and W walls. At mezzanine level between the third floor and the wall-walk, a second garderobe chamber in the E wall is accessed directly off the stairs, lit by a slit-ope with slop-stone beneath. The wall-walk is carried above a string-course, with machicolations at W, above the main entrance, and also at E and S, each carried on three projecting double corbels. The garderobe chute exits at ground floor level on the E side of tower, S of the later inserted doorway. A house (TS053-035005-), of which only the N angle survives, was added onto the S face of the tower house, possibly in the late 16th or 17th century. A possible contemporary stone-lined deep circular well (TS053-035003-), 40m to the NW of the castle, would have been inside the bawn wall. The possible outline of a levelled bawn (TS053-035004-) to the W of the tower house shows up on an aerial photograph (CUCAP ATA 1967) and a return of the bawn wall is visible on the SW face of the tower house.