Doonmacfelim Castle (in Ruins) — Doonmacfelim

On a natural mound on the W bank of the Aille River, in hilly pastureland with higher ground to SE and NE but otherwise commanding wide views. Indicated on the 1842 OS 6-inch map and named 'Doonmacfelim Castle (in ruins)'. Probably built by the O'Connor’s, but by 1570 was under the ownership of Turlough O'Brien (Ua Cróinín and Breen 1997). In 1577 there is a record of one of the O'Brien's probable tenants: one Owen, son of Richard McGillereogh, gentleman, of Doonmacfelim, was pardoned but fined one cow and ordered to keep the peace (ibid.). After the 1641 Irish rebellion this tower house was taken from Donough O'Brien and given to John Fitzgerald, and then passed through several owners until finally recorded as the property of William MacNamara in 1752 (ibid.). By the time of his visit, Westropp (1900, 287) found it to be 'a mere fragment, quite defaced, and with a vaulted lower room.' Described by Ua Cróinín and Breen (1997) as an unusual and very poorly preserved rectangular tower house (10.4m N-S; 8.7m E-W). Only the S wall stood to almost its full height (c. 9.5m), revealing that it was originally at least three storeys high. The tower house was built of dressed limestone blocks, almost regularly coursed and rising from a battered base set on a narrow plinth/footing. The size of blocks and quality of masonry deteriorated above 7m. There was a vaulted ceiling over the ground and first floors. The main entrance (demolished) was located in the N wall, leading to the ground-floor hall. Unusually there was no evidence for a porter's lodge, while the circular stairwell (diam. 2m) stood in the NW corner of the ground-floor hall. There was a wide garderobe opening at the N end of the E wall, its shaft leading down from the second floor. There were three damaged and blocked loops in the E, S and W walls, within vaulted, squared and splayed embrasures. There was an aumbry in the N wall of the W embrasure. The surviving S side of the first floor incorporated a secret lintelled chamber (L 2.9m; Wth 1m; H 2m) in the thickness of the S wall, lit by a small loop in the E wall. This chamber also had an unusual circular spy-hole in its W wall, allowing one to look out through the back of an aumbry in a first-floor loop embrasure (squared and splayed). Also unusually, there was a water conduit into the secret chamber through a carefully carved stone and a very narrow hole in the N wall. Its splayed ends possibly allowed the conduit to be covered when not in use. Access to the secret chamber was solely through a trapdoor in a passage on the second floor (a drop of almost 4m). The only other surviving feature in the second floor was another squared and splayed embrasure with a narrow square loop, also in the S wall. An inspection of the tower house in 1998 found it unaltered in the interim, apart from the accumulation of domestic and agricultural refuse in the interior, as well as evidence for burning here. There is an enclosure (CL008-060----) c. 107m to the NE and a mound (CL008-146----) c. 144m to the ESE. The following items have been uploaded: CL008-059002-_01.pdf Details from Risteárd Ua Cróinín and Martin Breen, The Castles and Tower-houses of Co. Clare (unpublished report). Uploaded courtesy of R. Ua Cróinín and M. Breen. CL008-059002-_01.jpg View from NW CL008-059002-_02.jpg View from SW CL008-059002-_03.jpg View from W CL008-059002-_04.jpg Passage in E wall CL008-059002-_05.jpg S ground-floor loop from SE CL008-059002-_06.jpg W ground-floor loop from W Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Conn Herriott Date of upload: 20 December 2022