Derryowen Castle (in Ruins) — Derryowen

On the SE edge of a limestone platform, c. 160m to the W of Derryowen House. Indicated and named ‘Derryowen Castle (in ruins)’ on the 1842 edition of the OS 6-inch map; symbols indicating two limekilns in its vicinity are shown c. 10m and c. 26m to its NNW. A brief summary of its history by Ua Cróinín and Breen (2005, 9-10) indicates that Westropp believed that the castle dated to 1450/1500. It first belonged to the O’Shaughnessys but was then granted to Murrough O’Brien by King Henry VIII in 1543. In the 1580s it was taken by the Sheriff of Clare, George Cusack. In 1599 Turlough O’Brien slew Cusack and it was returned to English hands by the Earl of Thomond later that year. In 1601 Turlough O’Brien retook it for a short time before having to flee and it was returned to loyalists. John Cookston is recorded as renting it, most likely from Lord Inchiquin Murrough na dToitean O’Brien. In 1659 Theobald Butler was recorded as a tenant. It was described by Lewis (1837, 71) as ‘a square tower, 116 feet [c. 35m] high, with spacious rooms, but part of it was fallen’. When O’Donovan recorded it in 1839 (Comber 1997, 40), it was ‘all destroyed’ apart from the W wall which was ‘nearly perfect’. A photograph taken in 1980 indicates that it was still intact and that a chimney stack rose inside the parapet; unfortunately most of the wall collapsed in February 1990, taking the chimney with it (Ua Cróinín and Breen 2005, 9-10). Only the NW corner of this six-storey high rectangular tower house now survives. Based on the remaining fragments of the W (L 10m) and N (6m) walls, Ua Cróinín and Breen’s (ibid., 8) conjectural plan of it suggests that its maximum external dimensions were c. 12.5m E-W and 7.8m N-S. It is constructed of regularly coursed squared limestone rubble with dressed quoinstones at the angle and around the windows. It has a base-batter. The doorway was in the N wall but it has been completely robbed out. However, its drawbar-socket survives on its W side. This doorway accessed a small lobby, the roof of which is wicker-centred. The nib-holes which supported its frame are visible. There is no murder-hole. Doorways off the lobby to the E, N and W accessed the passage leading to the spiral stairs, the main ground-floor chamber and the guardroom (2.42m N-S; 1.3m E-W; H 1.95m) respectively. There is no trace of the spiral stairs and all that survives of the E doorway is the hanging eye on its S side. The N doorway (Wth 1.13m; present H 1.05m) is pointed and chamfered. The chamber beyond it is filled with collapsed material. Only the S jambstone and drawbar-socket of the guardroom doorway survive. Above the ground floor, the floors between the first and fourth floors were subdivided into a subsidiary chamber to the N, above the doorway, and a main chamber to the S. The fifth floor consisted of one large chamber. There were stone barrel vaults over the first and third floors of the main chambers and pointed vaults over the ground floor and fourth floors of the subsidiary chambers. All the other floors were wooden; beam holes and corbels which supported them are visible in both walls of the main chamber on the first floor and in the N wall of the subsidiary chamber on the third floor. Apart from a small rectangular window in the N wall of the guardroom, the other windows consist of tall single lights with rectangular or ogee heads, some are set within deep embrasures and some have decorated spandrels. One angle loop is visible at second-floor level. On the first-floor the hanging eye and socket for a shutter survive on the window in the W wall of the subsidiary chamber, and a hanging eye and spudstone survive on the window in the main chamber. A window between the haunches of the barrel vault over the main chamber and the subsidiary chamber on the fourth floor suggest that there was formerly an intramural passage at this level. It probably led to a garderobe as the robbed-out exit chute of one is visible on the external wall-face below this at ground-floor level. Internally at this level the chute is exposed where the wall-face has collapsed. A large fireplace with chamfered edges is visible in the W wall on the third floor. The mantle above it is unusual and is somewhat similar in appearance to hood-mouldings found above windows. Above it, at either end, are two sets of corbels placed one above the other. Healy (1987, 53) has suggested that their function may have been to hold swords, guns or other long objects. The 1980 photograph of the wall (Ua Cróinín and Breen 2005, 10) indicates that the window to the S of the fireplace survived intact but that a wall fracture cut through it and the vault above. Following the subsequent wall collapse only the N half of the window now remains. Wall cupboards are visible in the NW angle of the subsidiary chamber on the first floor and in the S wall of those on the third floor and fourth floors. Ua Cróinín and Breen (ibid., 9) noted many parts of a double-light mullioned window lying on the ground and suggested that they may have fallen from the window on the fifth floor; all that survives of it is its N jamb. A small rectangular or square recess is visible on both faces of the wall at this level but it is not clear if there is a passage though the wall, which would suggest that it held a slop-stone. There is an external string course at parapet level and associated drain-holes are visible above it. The lower courses of the machicolation survive and there is bartizan at the angle of tower. Ua Cróinín and Breen (ibid., 8) noted that the sillstone of a narrow window loop was reused as a lintel in its construction, suggesting that it was a later feature or that it was subsequently repaired. They also recorded traces of an associated bawn wall (CL011-023001-) c. 15m to the W (ibid., 9). The following items have been attached: CL011-023----_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. CL011-023----_01.jpg View of tower house from N. CL011-023----_02.jpg View of tower house from NW. CL011-023----_03.jpg View of tower house from SE. CL011-023----_04.jpg Fireplace on W wall of third floor. Compiled by: Mary Tunney, Olive Alcock and Ros Ó Maoldúin Date of upload: 27 September 2021