Ballymore Castle — Ballymore Lower

In the flat open demesne land. The N and E sides of this rectangular 4/5storey tower house (E-W 10.75m; 9.25m N-S) are incorporated into Ballymore House, a late 18th-century county house, and its outbuildings; by the mid-1980s only the ground floor was still used as part of the household. It is constructed of fairly regularly coursed limestone with dressed quoinstones; the wall are rendered. A number of modern doorways connect both buildings but the original pointed arch doorway is set off-centre in the E wall. It gives access to a small lobby with an overhead blocked-up murder-hole. Further pointed doorways off the lobby access the spiral staircase in the SE corner and the modernised main ground-floor room to the W. An opening of similar dimensions to the murder-hole is visible above the doorway to the stairwell but its function is unknown. The main room is completely panelled with horizontally laid tongue and groove boards and its roof has a pointed apex c. 3.4m above the floor. It was probably originally barrel vaulted and its height suggests that the original first floor may have been removed. The room is lit by a slit window in the S wall, which was widened and paned with glass, and a fine 19th-century three-lighted wooden window with trefoil heads in the W wall, which is set into a wide embrasure that was cut into the wall. There is a fireplace in the S wall. To the N of the lobby a modern corridor occupies what was the guardroom and it continues through the punched-out E end of the N wall where it joins another corridor in the later house. A small blocked-up slit window is evident at the N end of the E wall and opposite it an alcove has been converted into a cupboard. The 1st floor comprises one almost square room (4.95m N-S; 4.65m E-W). Two modern openings, one in the N wall, the other in the E wall, connect it with the house. There are two wide embrasures in the S wall, a modern sash window has been inserted into the W one and the original but damaged single-light cusped ogee-headed light survives in the E one. There is also a small light in the latrine in the NW corner. The 2nd floor comprises a main room with a subsidiary chamber to its E. The main room, square in plan (4.85m N-S; 4.85m E-W), is wood panelled to head height and has a flat plastered ceiling. Bartizans at the SW and NW corners are now concealed behind the panelling. There are wide embrasures in the N and S walls, the one in the N is now blocked but the S one contains a three-light flat-headed window with an external hood-moulding. The mullions are missing and have been replaced by a 19th-century sash window. There is a fireplace in the W wall. The subsidiary chamber is accessed through a doorway in the E wall of the main room. It is roughly rectangular in plan (2.85m N-S; 2.15m E-W) and has a fine cusped ogee-headed single light. A small breach, possibly modern, in the N wall accesses another possible bartizan in the NE corner. The plan of the 3rd floor was originally similar to that of the 2nd but the dividing wall between the two rooms has been removed so that it now consists of one large room (6.6m N-S; 5.4m E-W). Five windows (now broken) light the room; they include a single light in a now blocked chamber/latrine in the SW corner and four flat-headed mullioned windows with external hood-mouldings: that in the S wall has four lights, that in the E wall has three and those in the W and N walls have two. A fireplace is centrally located in the N wall. Three stout wooden beams now plastered over carry the ceiling. Above this floor a small garret occupies the eaves of the roof, which is slated. The wall-walk is complete but the battlements are restored and heavily capped with concrete. A string course is visible all round. There are modern chimneys at both gable ends at E and W. A machicolation on the E wall protected the original doorway and there are angle bartizans at the SE and NW corners and two small turrets at the NW (this one is now topped with a chimney) and NE corners. An unusual feature is a winch, close to the E end of the parapet along the S wall. Numerous musket loops are visible at various points, including the spiral staircase between the ground and 1st floor, the bartizan at the SW corner of the 2nd floor and along the parapet. Compiled by: Olive Alcock Date of upload: 25 August 2021