Old Castle — Castlequarter (inch Ed)

Inch Castle: First mentioned in 1454, this tower house was probably in ruins by 1600. It was granted to Chichester at the time of the Plantation and although his tenant Mr. Skinner had 'pr' pared lyme and other materials to rebuyld the Castle' the remains do not indicate that he made any alterations (Davies and Swan 1939, 205-6; Hunter 1975, 82). Situated on a small ridge on the SW shore of the island, Inch Castle is protected by a cliff on the S and W and a steep slope on the N; the ridge has been quarried to a cliff face on the E, probably both as a defence and for building stone. Only the E half of the keep, three storeys in height survives. The W half is a mass of fallen masonry and the entrance was probably in the W wall. The walls are built of rubble and split stone laid in a coarse sea-sand mortar and rise from battered lower courses. The ground-floor may originally have had only two chambers; the E survives 4.4m by 5.95m internally. Both were vaulted but only the skew backs of the W chamber remain; the vaults were aligned N-S. Apart from a hole at the N end, the vault in the E chamber is complete and the opposing beam holes for the centering survive. The chamber was lit by two widely splayed loops with long narrow opes in the E and S walls; the latter preserves traces of wicker centering on its segment-headed rear-arch soffit. The slits are broken away towards the base and the interior sills partly removed to ground level; they may have been enlarged for cannon (Swan and Davies 1938, 48). There is a wall-press at the SE corner and the lintelled doorway at the N end of the cross-wall preserves the draw-bar hole and socket. A section of ingoing for a widely splayed loop survives in the S wall of the W chamber. Access to the first floor was via a mural stairs in the thickness of the N wall; the steps are rough flags and it is roofed with similar material. The door to the first floor apartment is at the E end of the N wall. Opposite it, in the outer wall of the keep is a splayed ingoing for a small loop and above the landing are the remains of a murder-hole shaft. The lintel for the doorway has fallen. This chamber was lit by a narrow window with segment-headed rear-arch in the E and S walls. The L-shaped garderobe is built in the thickness of the SE corner of the keep; the discharge opening is at the foot of the S wall. It contains two small wall-presses and is lit by a single, small loop in the S wall. The skew backs for a N-S aligned vault survive in the E wall; the W limit of this chamber, however, is unknown. Access to the second floor was via the return of the N mural stairs in the thickness of the E wall; the outer wall has completely fallen away at this NE corner but an ingoing for a small loop survives at the foot of the E stairs. Some sections of the E and N second-floor walls survive; the former contains the remains of a large recess and the latter the remains of two recesses, one of which provided access to the murder hole. The above description was derived from the 'Archaeological Survey of County Donegal. A description of the field antiquities of the County from the Mesolithic Period to the 17th century.' Compiled by: Brian Lacey with Eamon Cody, Claire Cotter, Judy Cuppage, Noel Dunne, Vincent Hurley, Celie O'Rahilly, Paul Walsh and Seán Ó Nualláin (Lifford: Donegal County Council, 1983). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated. Date of upload: 22 September 2008