What is recorded here

Castlerea rises five storeys above poorly drained pasture, its thick limestone walls built to watch the western and northern horizons during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. A murder-hole hangs over the lobby, gun loops pierce the guardroom, and a double chute still marks where waste fell from the upper chambers. The tower remains stubborn and exposed, preserving the shape of a household that turned sight, heat and fear into daily life.

On a NW-facing slope in poorly drained pasture with commanding views to the W and N. This late 16th/early 17th-century, five-storey, rectangular tower house (ext. dims. 10.6m NE–SW; 9.2m NW–SE; wall T 2.7m) is constructed of roughly coursed limestone and sandstone conglomerate with a slight base-batter. The destroyed doorway in the NE wall leads to a small lobby with an overhead murder-hole. Traces of wicker-centring are evident on the roof of the lobby. The guardroom, which has a series of gun loops, opens off the lobby to the NE while the spiral staircase is to the SE. The doorway from the lobby to the main ground-floor chamber has been broken out. The upper floors comprise a main chamber with a subsidiary one to the NE located directly over the lobby area. There is a NW–SE barrel vault over the main first-floor chamber and there are two floors above the vault. Garderobe chambers are evident in the S end of the NW wall on the third and fourth floors while a double garderobe exit chute, similar to one at Rathcline (LF017-009002-), is evident on its external face (see linked image LF019-061001-_02). There is a mural passage at the N end of the SE wall on the first floor. Traces of a machicolation survive over the doorway at fourth-floor level. Fireplaces are visible in the centre of the NE wall on the second- and third-floor levels. A small rectangular chimney stack can be seen protruding above the walls of the tower house. In the main chamber on the second-floor level, lime plaster is well preserved in the large window embrasures of the NW and SE walls. All of the windows, with the exception of one simple rectangular ope, have been broken out. The tower house is within the NW quadrant of a bawn (LF019-061002-). Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 1 June 2012

Built by the O'Connors of Castlerea in the late 16th or early 17th century, the tower house stands as a significant example of Gaelic Irish architecture and reflects the power and status of the local chieftain family during the period of English expansion in Ireland.

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