What is recorded here

Shanbally Castle stands as a ruined tower house on a slight rise in County Tipperary, its thick limestone walls reduced to ground-floor remnants after centuries of neglect. The structure once housed Wm. Cantwell and John Cantwell, Irish Papists recorded in the Civil Survey, within a chamber lit by narrow loops and defended by a southern guardroom. Today only the chamfered jambs of one window survive, preserving the shape of a lobby that once led upward into darkness now lost to time.

Situated on level ground on a slight rise in gently undulating terrain. A tower house (dims. 10.6m N-S x 10.4m E-W; wall T 2.1m) in ruinous condition, constructed of roughly coursed limestone rubble, only surviving at ground-floor level. The entrance appears to have been roughly centrally placed in the W wall at ground-floor level with a guardroom to the S. A second lobby to the N gave access to mural stairs and the main ground-floor chamber. This chamber (dims. 5.3m N-S x 4.3m E-W) was lit by three narrow loops set in wide, almost straight-sided embrasures. Only the jambs of the S light survive, chamfered externally and rebated internally with punch tooling. In the Civil Survey (1654-6) the tower house is described as 'a stump of a Castle inhabited and out of repaire with old buildings' (Simington 1931, vol. 1, 57). 'Wm. Cantwell of Mokarky Esqr.' and 'John Cantwell of Ballymckady in the Bary. of Clan Wm. Esqr. Irish Papists' are listed as proprietors (ibid.). 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

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