What is recorded here

Coolcroo Castle stands on flat pasture in County Tipperary, its broken limestone walls still holding a hidden chamber above a narrow slit. The small north tower rises higher than the rest, marking the only part that reached the second floor before time took the difference. Someone built a private stair and a secret room where no guest should look, then left the place open to rain and memory.

Situated on flat pasture with extensive views. The poorly preserved remains of a possible T-plan tower house (ext. dims. 3.5m N-S; 10.9m E-W; wall T 1.55m) the N half of which survives to first-floor level only. The walls are constructed with roughly coursed limestone rubble with prominent base-batter. A small tower projecting from the N wall survives to second-floor level and contains a garderobe, the outlet of which is visible at base of the N wall. The ground floor has a barrel-vaulted chamber orientated on an E-W axis, with a small recess containing a slit ope and a gun loop in the N wall and a secret chamber over the recess at mezzanine level. This secret chamber is accessed from the first-floor chamber in the N tower. Mural stairs in the E wall lead to a lobby in the NE angle which accesses the first-floor chamber and the smaller chamber in the N tower from which the garderobe and upper tower chambers are reached. 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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