Castle — Castlewidenham

The tower is part of a complex of buildings (CO026-089002-, CO026-089003-, CO026-089004-, CO026-085----) located on a steep-sided promontory overlooking the Awbeg River. The rectangular tower (7.7m northwest-southeast; 7.4m northeast-southwest) stands to full height with crenellations and cap house. Though largely intact it shows signs of modifications and repairs in both the 19th and 20th centuries. The tower has five main floors, a single chamber at each level also with a number of mural chambers. The tower is entered at ground floor level through a door near the southeast end of its northeast wall. The door has a two-centred pointed arch set in a rectangular rebate. Closing the opening is a recent wooden door hinged on the east side by metal brackets sunk into the door jamb. Inside the door is a short lobby (1.3m x 1.25m) which is entirely open overhead to the murder-hole shaft. The lobby gives entry straight through to the ground-floor chamber. The door surround has a two-centred pointed arch. All the jamb stones on either side of the surround are replacements but in the style of the originals. There is a brick jamb outside the surround on the lobby side matching that on the entrance door side. The door is closed by an openwork metal gate hung from two metal brackets sunk into the outside of the eastern jamb. To house the catch for this a metal bracket is strapped to the western jamb. There must have been a door here at some stage to match that on the entrance door as there is the same arrangement of metal brackets on the inside of the eastern jamb. The lobby opens on its northwest side to the base of a rising mural stairs. The original door surround is now and in its place is a recent wooden frame for a missing door. The ground floor chamber (4.68m x 3.64m) now has a concrete floor and there are extensive recent repairs to the southwest wall. There is a blocked-up window embrasure (0.92m wide) in centre of northwest wall; the embrasure is covered by a lintel with a relieving arch overhead. The central ope in the southwest wall (1.32m wide) is entirely rebuilt in concrete blocks, creating a two-storey embrasure framing the first-floor window and the blocked ground-floor ope. The embrasure has an opening in its east side giving access to a passageway. The passageway is much altered and repaired and has been extended to the southeast to meet a wooden door (now blocked) giving entry to the castellated house. A recess (1m wide x 1.7m deep) in the east wall of the main chamber has no original features but may be the remains of a mined-out doorway. The stairs from the ground floor lobby rises in the northeast wall (width 1m) to the northern corner of the tower from which it rises as a spiral stairs the full height of the tower. The steps of the spiral stairs are each formed of a single shaped stone brought to a point at the centre. The under-surfaces of the steps are formed to a smooth curved surface. There is an awkward transfer between these of four steps. The topmost of these gives access to a short linteled recess which gave access to the now blocked-up door to the first-floor chamber. The first floor chamber (4.68m x 3.64m) was entered by the blocked doorway (0.95m wide) at the north end of the northwest wall from the stairs. The opening for the doorway is partially cut into the slope of the overhead vault. The door is completely blocked with masonry but it has a linteled head and straight-edge jamb on its south side. The room was lit by a central window in the southwest and northeast walls. The south window is completely gone and replaced by recent rebuilding. The north window has also been heavily repaired with a concrete head but shallow-splayed sides probably original. The room is covered by a bluntly pointed vault (axis northeast-southwest). At first floor level is a mural chamber (6m x 1.3m) in the northeast wall of the tower entered directly from the stairs via a door with a two-centred pointed arch. The chamber is covered by a pointed wicker-centred vault, the central portion of which is now gone (in the space of the window embrasure overhead). Towards the eastern end of the chamber is the murder hole opening, now blocked by a wooden board. The chamber is lit by a window in centre of northeast wall. This has a light with a shouldered arch to its head. At the southeast end of the chamber is a large opening that now opens into a mural chamber at mezzanine level in the southeast wall of the tower (see below). This is not an original opening but is broken through. The second floor chamber (4.8m x 5.07m) is entered from the spiral stairs by a door with a two-centred pointed arch. The doorway is in the north corner of the room and there is a rather awkward arrangement of lintels overhead to accommodate this. This chamber has a window in the centre of northeast, southwest and northwest walls and a fireplace in the southeast wall. The northwest window embrasure (1.7m wide) is covered by a segmental-arched head (plank-centred) and is square-set. The light is square-headed and set in a smaller linteled and splayed embrasure. The southwest window embrasure, though damaged, is similar to the latter with an inserted light. A similar thing has happened to the window in the northeast wall In this case the base of the embrasure (embrasure 1.94m wide) is missing where the vault of the mural chamber underneath is gone. The inserted fireplace (0.77m wide, 0.6m deep) in the southeast wall has a rectangular opening that is much rebuilt. At the north end of the southeast wall is a curved passageway leading to a steeply descending spiral stairs giving access to the mural chamber at mezzanine level in the east wall (see below). In the south corner is a curving passageway whose base is now below floor level. The end of the passageway is closed by a wooden door that gives access to the house beyond. The passageway shows evidence of rebuilding/modification that may be consequent of differing floor levels between the building the tower was originally attached to and the subsequent rebuilt house. The mural chamber (5.3m x 1.4m) in the southeast wall at mezzanine (see above) is covered by a bluntly pointed wicker-centred vault (axis northwest-southeast). The chamber is lit by two slit windows, the southern one now blocked-up. A linteled wall press is located near south end of the inside wall with most of wall plaster intact. The present roof of the southern end of this chamber is concrete (below the level of the vault). The third floor chamber (4.8m x 5.07m) is covered by a bluntly pointed vault. The side walls are formed by sloping sides of vault and is featureless. In centre of northeast and southwast walls is a recess, rectangular in profile. The northern one has an upward-sloping bed and square-set sides. The roof appears to be sloping edge-to-edge stones like the head of a mural stairs. The recess in the S wall is more square-set, like a fireplace opening, but with an upward sloping hole (as if feeding a smoke hole). At this level is a door with two-centred pointed arch, gives access from the spiral stairs to mural garderobe chamber (5.8m x 0.86m) in the northwest wall. What may be original iron brackets to hang door set into wall inside on east side; also draw-bar sockets. The chamber is roofed by lintels and lit by a window mid-way along in its outside wall. The window embrasure is linteled and has a single flat-headed light. At south end the chamber widens to accommodate the garderobe itself. The upper surround for the seat does not survive and the shaft is now a rectangular opening in the floor. Here is a wall press in the inside wall and a slit window in the outside wall. The fourth floor chamber (5.16m x 5.94m) is entered by a door with a two-centred pointed arch, from the spiral stairs. The chamber is lit by a central window in each wall, it has an inserted fireplace in the southeast wall and has five wall presses. The four windows all appear to h