Castle

Situated on rock outcrop with an enclosure site (TN035-070----) to the N. A well-preserved four-storey tower house (ext. dims. 12.08m NW-SE; 9.66m NE-SW; wall T 2.4m) built with roughly coursed limestone rubble and alternating hammer dressed quoins with slight base-batter. The main entrance, consisting of a two-centred chamfered and rebated doorway in the NW wall, gives access to a lobby protected by an overhead murder-hole and a cross-loop in the SE wall. There is a guardroom in the W angle off the lobby and to the N of the lobby is an antechamber from which the spiral stair in the N angle and the ground-floor chamber is reached. The ground floor is lit by a single-light elliptical-headed window in the SE wall with twin-light elliptical windows set into segmental-arched embrasures with wicker centring in the SW and NE walls. Wooden floors were carried on joists supported on a wall-plate carried on corbels on all levels except the third floor which rests on top of the barrel vault over the second floor. Fenestration consists of single and twin-light elliptical-headed windows and twin-light ogee-headed windows. At first-floor level there is a flat-headed fireplace with joggled voussoirs on the SW wall and a garderobe in the E angle accessed off the E splay of a window embrasure in the NE wall. The murder-hole is accessed from a first-floor chamber while smaller rooms over the lobby orientated on a NE-SW axis are accessed off the spiral stairs. A mural passage in the NE wall leads to a garderobe in the E angle at third-floor level accessed off the spiral stairs. The third floor has been greatly modified in the nineteenth century as evidenced by bricked-up opes and brick-arched windows. The wall-walk is reached from mural stairs in the NW wall which are accessed off the N splay of a window embrasure in the NW wall. There is a secret mural chamber in the NE wall at the N end at third-floor level. Also at third floor level is a blocked-up keyhole gun loop in the SE wall. A garderobe chute exits at the base of the SE wall off-centre to the E. A combination of stone dressing, consisting of fine pecking with drafted margins, together with architectural features suggest a late sixteenth/early seventeenth-century date for this tower house. The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Tipperary. Vol. 1 - North Tipperary' compiled by Jean Farrelly and Caimin O'Brien (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2002). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 22 September 2008

Built in the late 16th or early 17th century, Castle Killahara is a well-preserved example of a tower house, likely constructed by a local Gaelic family for defensive purposes during a period of political instability in Ireland. Its architectural integrity makes it significant for understanding early modern Irish domestic and military architecture.