Gortmakellis Castle (in ruins)

Below rising ground to SE, on ground sloping slightly to W, in undulating terrain. A ringfort (TS061-003----) is visible c. 380m to SW. Described in the Civil Survey (1654-6) as 'a castle tentable', with the proprietor in 1640 is listed as 'Edmond Stapleton of GortmcEllis Irish Papist' (Simington 1931, vol. 1, 223). This late 16th/early 17th-century tower house (ext. dims. 7.88m x 10.11m) of four storeys with attic, with a vault over the first floor, is built of roughly coursed rubble, with well-cut limestone quoins and a base-batter (H 2.5-2.8m; Wth 0.16-0.23m) which rests on a basal plinth. It was entered through a pointed doorway at the S end of the W wall which has a yett-hole at apex and impost level in the N jamb. The doorway gives access to a lobby protected by a murder-hole, with a small guardroom to S with two gun-loops and a passage to N leading to spiral stairs rising in the NW angle. The ground-floor chamber is entered from the lobby via a doorway now mostly destroyed. The tower house is lit by a variety of single and double-light windows, including flat-, round-, elliptical- and ogee-headed windows, with larger windows used in the upper floors. There is a broken-out fireplace on the second floor in the S wall, with a tall chimney stack at parapet level, and another broken-out fireplace on the third floor in the N wall, the chimney stack of which is gone. There are two garderobe chambers in the N wall, between first and second floor and second and third floor. The exit chute is in the centre of the N wall, near the ext. ground level. The gables survive in good condition, with a flat-headed window in each to light the attic. Parapet level is accessed via a small cap-house at the top of the stairs, though the doorway does not survive. There were two angle machicolations at NE and SW angles, only the supporting corbels of which survive. Though the tower house is surrounded by tillage there is a fallow area N of the building, c. 20m in extent. This may be a particularly stoney area in the field or may indicate the former location of a bawn. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 26 August 2011

Built in the 17th century, Gortmakellis Castle was described as "a castle tentable" in the Civil Survey (1654–56), indicating it was a defensible structure held by a local proprietor during the turbulent period of Confederate Ireland. Its importance lies in its historical context as a surviving example of early modern Irish defensive architecture.