Mackmine Castle

Mawmayne (Mackmine) was held by John FitzHenry by a knight’s fee from Valence in 1296, and probably from the beginning of the Anglo-Norman settlement (Brooks 1950, 189). According to the Civil Survey (1654-6) Thomas FitzHaris owned a ‘Faire castle’ at Mackmine as well as 420 acres in the townlands of Mackmine, Kilgibbon, and the unknown Keil Irrea, which is probably Coolteige, in the part of Clonmore parish in Shelmaliere barony (Simington 1953, 103). The castle was owned by the King family from at least the early 18th century, and they probably added the Neo-gothic N and E wings later in the century, but by 1862 the property had passed to the Richards family. After the First World War a community of nuns from Belgium lived at Mackmine, after which it was probably abandoned. (Jeffrey 1979, 115-7; Bence-Jones 1978, 198) The tower house with an external base batter on each wall except the E is located on the flood-plain of the N-S River Slaney, with the stream and Kings Island c. 300m to the SE. It survives to the second storey with a modern brick skin added to the interior and an external render (ext. dims. c. 9m N-S; 7.65m E-W). It has a N-S barrel vault over the ground floor loft but few original features are evident at the ground floor where a large gothic doorway is inserted in the S wall. Passages have been broken through the N end of the E wall on the ground and first floors connecting to the E wing. The original entrance was probably towards the N end of the E wall on the ground floor as a mural stairs in the E wall leads through a blocked doorway at the S end of that wall to the loft, which has one surviving window and one blocked embrasure with an inserted fireplace in the W wall. A newel stairs rises in the SE angle to the first floor over the vault where there are two brick windows on the W wall and one each on the N and S walls, probably utilising original embrasures. The only original features are the pointed doorway from the stairs and a garderobe in the N wall at the NE angle, with two lights. A brick fireplace is inserted into the original fireplace opening (Wth 1.8m; H 1.22m) in the W wall and corbels in the E and W wall supported the ceiling. The stairs continued in the SE angle to the second floor where the doorway is destroyed and the granite fireplace has an inserted brick fireplace. There are two window embrasures in the E wall, and one each in the W and S walls. A third floor is added entirely in brick, and the parapet with its corner turrets is also in brick.