Cloondadauv Castle — Cloondadauv

In rough pastureland on the shore of a small promontory jutting into Lough Derg. In existence in 1574 when it was in the possession of ‘Therle of Clanrie’ (Nolan 1901, 111). On inspection in December 1984, this rectangular four-storey high tower house (10.10m E-W; 8.7m N-S), with a gabled attic, was fairly well preserved. Some restoration work had been carried out and it had been reroofed. The N and E walls were in better condition than the S and W walls where some structural faults were evident. The tower house was built of regularly coursed limestone blocks and mortar with dressed quoinstones. A plinth was visible at the base of the W and N walls and the base-batter rose to a height of 2m. Access was gained through a partially blocked but completely robbed-out doorway towards the W end of the S wall. Inside the doorway, to the right, an intramural staircase led to the spiral staircase in the SE corner. The main ground-floor room was directly opposite. The remains of a subsidiary chamber on the 1st floor above the doorway most likely housed the murder-hole. There was a vault between the 2nd and 3rd floors but none of the wooden floors survived. A mural passage along the E wall on the 2nd floor accessed a garderobe, its exit chute was visible towards the base of the N end of this wall. A narrow chamber extended along the S wall between the 3rd floor and the attic. There were fireplaces in the E wall on the 1st floor and in the E and W walls on the 3rd floor. Wall recesses were visible in the W wall on the ground floor and in the N and S walls on the 3rd floor. Access could not be gained to the roof and parapet from the spiral stairs. A doorway in the S gable indicated another point of access. There was an overgrown machicolation on the 3rd floor above the doorway and there were angle bartizans at the SE and NW corners of the tower. A number of slop-stones projected from E and W walls. Chimneys rose from the W wall and directly from the top of the E wall; the latter one was stepped in profile. A variety of windows survived, though some were robbed out or damaged. They included rectangular slits, unusual cross-shaped arrow slits, one with a slop-stone directly beneath it, and single, two and three-light ogee-headed windows, some with decorated spandrels. The three-light windows were on the 3rd floor; that on the E wall had a hood-moulding that bore a fine sculpture of a dog/wolf on its S terminal. The other example, in the S wall, was robbed out. Subsequent to the site visit, further restoration work was carried out on the tower, which is in private ownership. Compiled by: Olive Alcock Date of upload: 29 September 2021