Indicated — Quin

Situated on a bend of the River Rine at the NE edge of Quin village with some defense afforded by the river to the W and N. The ground falls away sharply towards the river to W and N. This Anglo-Norman castle was built in 1280 by Sir Thomas de Clare (c. 1245-87) in an attempt to subdue the Macnamaras. It was captured and burned by Cumheadha MacNamara in 1285 and in the 14th century much of it was demolished and used to build the Franciscan Friary (CL042-027002-) on the same footprint. Many of the castle walls were reused and incorporated into the Friary. (See Ua Cróinín 1997, CL042-027001-_01.pdf (attached) for more on the history of the castle). A substantial square castle (c. 37m across) with round corner bastions (ext. diam. 12m), the lower parts of which still remain at NE, SE and SW. Including the bastions the front elevation measures 48m. There are no above ground remains of a bastion at NW but there may have been one originally. A deep wide flat-bottomed moat (dims. at SE: Wth at base 5.5m; Wth at top 15.3m; ext. D 1.24m; int. D 2.62m) is still evident from E to S. At S it is occupied by the present graveyard (CL042-027009-). Excavation (Hull 2017; Licence no. E004671) of the possible medieval school (CL042-027015-) to the E of the castle in 2017 revealed portion of the refilled moat at that location. Of the moat, Hull (2017, 15) states: ‘The excavation has established that the moat continued in a northward direction to the east of the monument although the full depth and width of the moat…was not established. It is very likely that the moat was constructed in parallel with the castle c. 1280 as the fourteenth century Caithréim Thoirdhealbhaigh (Hayes O'Grady 1929, 19) records “...knavish English belonging to the with-ditch-and-rampart-furnished castle of Quin...” and the Caithréim records also in 1285 that Quin Castle's “...ditch was crossed, earthworks carried, great gate battered in and hewn down; its strong walls were breached, its English stammerers captured...” (ibid., 30). Given that the large rectangular structure targeted by Trench 1 was, in part, built over the moat and that a lead bullet that possibly dates to the first half of the seventeenth century was found in the construction cut for that building, then the moat was likely backfilled at the east of the castle/friary between the late thirteenth and late sixteenth centuries.’ N curtain wall The curtain walls survive best where they attach to the NE corner tower. The lower portion of the E end of the N curtain wall (Wth 2.9m; ext. H 1.52m) is still visible where it is attached to the tower. It is very low internally (H 0.25m) as the interior is raised to compensate for the sharp slope to the river towards the N. According to Ua Cróinín (1997) recent investigations have shown that much of the external kitchen wall of the Friary may also be contemporary with the castle. E curtain wall The foundation of most of the E curtain wall survives (int. H 0.7m; ext. H 0.83m; Wth 2.87m) (original L between the corner towers 25.4m). It has a small low wall built on top (H 0.43m; Wth 0.38m) almost at the external edge and has a slight batter. The S end of the E curtain wall is now the E end of the Abbey church. The E window of the church has very deep splays due to the width of the wall. Close to the N end of E curtain wall there is a set of steps (Wth 1.07m) spiralling towards the top. S curtain wall This wall (Wth 2.75m) is substantially incorporated into the S wall of the Friary church (CL042-027002-) which was built along the same line. The main entrance to the castle was in the middle of the S wall and the inner arch of this (Wth 3.25m) is still present under the crossing tower of the Friary. The windows of the S wall of the church required deep splays both internally and externally due to the castle wall width giving them a strange external appearance. NE bastion The NE bastion (H 2.3m; diam. across the top 11.85m; int. diam. 4.56m; wall Wth 3.62m) is the best preserved and has a slight batter. It has a short entrance passage narrowing from 0.77m to 0.58m and has two deep rectangular internal recesses (Wth 2.68m) with deep widely splayed embrasures over (D 0.85-1.29m). A third recess (Wth 1.36m) has a flue narrowing towards the top. SE bastion The SE bastion is less well preserved (diam. at top 9.25m; ext. remaining H 3.32m; wall Wth 2.8m) as it joins what later became the SE corner of the Abbey church. It has two internal rectangular recesses (Wth 2.21-2.25m; D 1.7m). SW bastion The SW bastion, close to the entrance doorway to the Abbey is the least well preserved (diam 9.18m; ext. remaining H 2.14m; wall Wth c. 2m). The interior of this bastion has been built up and used for burial. Quin Castle and Friary are National Monuments in State Care, no. 15. (Westropp 1888, 334-5; Westropp 1900, 427-38; Ua Briain 1908; Ua Cróinín and Breen 1997; Hull 2017) The following items have been uploaded: CL042-027001-_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. CL042-027001-_01.jpg E curtain wall and NE corner bastion from S. CL042-027001-_02.jpg NE bastion from above at E. CL042-027001-_03.jpg Steps leading to top of E curtain wall. CL042-027001-_04.jpg Remaining portion of N curtain wall. CL042-027001-_05.jpg Exterior of NE bastion from S. CL042-027001-_06.jpg Interior of SE bastion from E. Compiled by: Mary Tunney Date of upload: 5 June 2018