Dromcarra Castle (in Ruins) — Report the wrong picture

What is recorded here

Dromcarra Castle stood as a squat three-storey tower on a low rock outcrop in County Cork, built by the O Learys no earlier than the 1570s. Its narrow slit windows and corner bartizans watched the rough pasture until deliberate breaches scarred its walls in the early nineteenth century. The landowner finally blew the ruins in 1968, reducing centuries of stone to a rectangular pile of rubble where only a fragment of the circular stairwell remains visible.

On low rock outcrop, in rough pasture, overlooked by higher ground except to NE. Sketch made in 1913 (Lee 1914, opp. 60) and photograph of 1930 (Fitzgerald 1930, 88) show squat 3-storey rectangular tower with narrow slit windows, gable atop one end wall with chimney stack, and traces of corner bartizans mid-way up opposite corners; all features consistent with a tower house. In 1968 blown up by the landowner (Healy 1988, 51) and now reduced to rectangular pile of rubble (c. 16m E-W; c. 12m N-S); discernible in the rubble is low section of N wall and part of circular stairwell (apparently at NE corner of tower), as is one side of window ope. Built by O Learys (ibid.); according to documentary sources not before 1570s (O Murchadha 1993, 239). Sketch made in 1832 'shows enormous breaches in the north, south and east walls, obviously a deliberate slighting' (ibid., 241). The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 3: Mid Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

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