Castle in ruins — Caherkinmonwee

In pastureland c. 60m to the NW of a tributary of the Craughwell River and surrounded by a small cluster of farm buildings. In existence in 1574 when 'Caherkynvoncoy' was in the possession of 'Moyler McShane Oge' (Nolan 1901, 121). The tower house underwent a programme of conservation and restoration subsequent to 1996 and is now a private residence (SMR file). The following report is based on an inspection undertaken in 1993 when the structure was well-preserved but in a ruinous condition (SMR file). It consists of a five-storey tower house (10.5m NE-SW; 8.7m NW-SE) constructed of roughly coursed limestone boulders and flagstones with a gentle base-batter. There were well-dressed quoins around the pointed arch entrance doorway, in the NE wall, and around the windows. The entrance doorway led into a small lobby off which there was the guardroom to the S and the spiral stairs to the N. A slit window in the NE wall of the guardroom was blocked up. Directly opposite the main entrance another doorway lead to the ground-floor chamber. It was full of straw bales and was inaccessible. All the wall faces of this chamber had been plastered. The first and second floors of the tower were divided into a main chamber with a subsidiary chamber to the NE, over the doorway. Projecting corbels in the NW and SE walls of the main chambers on the ground and first floors, and in the NE and SW walls of the first-floor subsidiary chamber indicated the floor levels. The floor of the main chamber on the first floor had been robbed out and was replaced with galvanised sheeting, which had partially collapsed. There were vaulted stone arches with traces of wickerwork centring over the chambers on the second floor. The third floor consisted of one large room. The fourth floor was unroofed but traces of a gable were evident on the NE wall. Access was not possible to the battlements but a line of well-inclined gutter-stones was visible along each wall face. Projecting machicolations survived at the top corner of each wall and there was also one in the NE wall above the doorway. There were intramural passages in the SE walls of the main chambers on the first and second floors and in the chamber on the third floor. These led to garderobes in the S end of the SW walls and the garderobe exit chute was visible in the base-batter on the SW wall. There was also an intramural passage in the SW wall on the third floor but it was almost completely blocked up. It was accessed from the N end of this wall. A robbed-out fireplace was evident on the third floor in the NW wall and a chimney rose above this wall on the fourth floor. Windows included simple slits in the NE and NW walls of the subsidiary chambers on the first and second floors. Those in the main chambers included ogee-headed windows with decorated spandrals in the NW and SW walls on the first and second floors; square windows (with central mullions missing) in the NW, NE and SE walls on the third floor, and an ogee-headed window in the SW wall; large square windows in the NW and SE walls (double mullion survives in the latter window) and a smaller single-mullioned window in the NE wall on the fourth floor. The spiral stairs was lit by three slit ogee-headed windows at inter-floor levels in the NE and NW walls. There was a thatched house c. 0.8m from the SE wall of the tower house. Its NW (back) wall thickened considerably towards its W end where it was only 0.6m from the tower house. This section of walling was unplastered externally and three broken corbels were visible projecting from it. At the corner of this wall another wall extended to the NW, just to the W of the SW wall of the tower house, and four well-dressed projecting corbels were visible on its external face. A third wall off the N end of this wall ran towards the base-batter of the tower house but was not bonded into it. These walls formed a small passageway between the tower house and the thatched house. Its function was unclear but it was possibly associated with the tower house. Compiled by: Olive Alcock Date of upload: 22 May 2015