Ballinderry Castle — Ballinderry (clare By.)

In gently undulating pastureland, formerly demesne land. This tower house (10.7m E-W; 9m N-S) was in the possession of 'John Burke fiz [sic] Tho.' in 1574 (Nolan 1901b, 119). A detailed description by Nolan (1901a, 33-6, 48) indicates that, at the turn of the 20th century, it was well preserved, standing five storeys high with a gabled attic. Access was gained through a pointed arched doorway in the E wall, which was protected by an on overhead murder-hole. The doorway opened into a small lobby, off which another doorway accessed the guardroom to the left. A second doorway to the right led to the spiral stairs in the NE angle and a third doorway, to the W of this, opened into the main ground-floor room. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors comprised a main room with a subsidiary chamber to the E. One room occupied the 4th floor and there was a ‘good garret’ in the attic, which had a window in the W gable. There were vaults over the main rooms between the 1st/2nd and 3rd/4th floors, and over the subsidiary chambers between the 1st/2nd and 3rd/4th floors. Passages in the haunches of the main vaults along the N wall led to garderobes. Fireplaces were visible in the S wall on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors; that on the 2nd floor had a massive mantelpiece, a similar one on the 4th floor had been removed 40 years previously. Remains of bartizans survived on the SE and NW corners at 2nd-floor level, and corbels on top of the E wall indicated the former presence of a machicolation over the doorway. Windows consisted mainly of ‘loopholes’ and larger windows. Other features of note included a sheela-na-gig (GA043-004003-) carved on the keystone of the archway over the doorway and a ‘full face’, with an ‘undecipherable inscription of some length’ on the external face of the N wall. On inspection in May 1984, the tower house was still in good condition. The slightly battered walls survived to roof height but the roof itself was no longer extant. The walls were constructed of undressed and roughly shaped stones and mortar but the quoinstones, doorway and window surrounds were beautifully dressed. Traces of a plinth were visible at the base of the E, S and W walls, which were heavily overgrown with ivy. The main features were still as described by Nolan (ibid.) but a secondary entrance, most likely inserted into a pre-existing slit window, was inserted into the S wall of the main ground-floor room. The spiral stairs unusually ran in a clockwise direction. The vaults remained intact but none of the wooden floors survived, cobels indicated their positions. A flight of steps off the stairwell led to the garderobe passage on the 2nd floor. The garderobe passage on the 3rd floor spanned the width of the N wall of the main room and then turned S along the W wall, ending to the N of a window. The lower part of the gardrobe exit chute was visible on the external face of the N wall. A small intramural chamber extended to the E of a window recess in the N wall on the 4th floor. The remains of all the fireplaces survived and the mantelpiece of that on the 2nd floor consisted of a beautiful cut-stone joggled lintel. Apart from the simple slit windows, the larger windows consisted of single and two-light ogee-headed and flat-headed windows. A number of them had been robbed out or were collapsed. Two carved heads were visible on each side of a flat-headed window on the 2nd floor on the N wall. One of the heads may be the ‘full face’ recorded by Nolan (ibid.) but the inscription was not noted. The tower house stood on the N edge of a rectangular platform (27m E-W; 25m N-S) defined by a scarp, which may have marked the line of a bawn (GA043-004002-). A series of earthworks (GA043-004004-) may also be associated with it. (Costello 1936, 312-13; Alcock et al. 1999, 394) The tower house has since been restored and is now a private residence. Compiled by: Olive Alcock Date of upload: 11 November 2022