Blackhall Castle — Blackhall (ballyshannon Ed)

At the E foot of Bull Hill (OD 573 feet) in mixed tillage and pastureland. A small stream rises c. 200m to W and flows E to the N of this Eustace castle (Tickell 1960, 374) which is now incorporated into a farmyard associated with the 19th-century Blackhall House c. 20m to its S. The E half of the tower house fell prior to 2004 and the following report is based on an inspection undertaken in 2001. A poorly preserved, four-storied, rectangular structure (dims. L 12.4m N-S; surviving Wth 8.2m E-W) with a robbed-out vault (orientated N-S) over the ground-floor, comprising the W wall and adjacent portions of the N and S walls. The very thick walls (max. T 3.3m), built of roughly coursed, limestone rubble with a gentle base-batter, accommodate intra-mural passages, stairs and chambers. A later doorway (on the site of the original entrance?) in the S wall gives to a narrow (Wth 1.2m), intra-mural passage (orientated E-W), with vaulted ceiling reinforced with concrete lintels, where off-line to the W, in the N wall of the passage, a second, pointed-arched doorway (subsequently blocked-up for use as an alcove; Wth 1.1m) gave to the main ground-floor chamber where a later doorway (Wth 1.15m), centrally placed in the W wall, cuts a narrow, intra-mural passage (orientated N-S; Wth 1.25m), leaving a small, unlit, lintel-roofed chamber (int. dims. L 1.75m N-S; Wth 1.25m) to the N of the doorway and a narrow but deep cupboard to the S, and gives access to a later, single-storied building to W. The W side of a fireplace is visible at the surviving E end of the N wall, with traces of its partially brick-lined flue rising to third-floor level. A spiral stairs in the SW angle (reached via a short flight of straight-stairs towards the W end of the intra-mural passage in the S wall) is lit by loops at inter-floor levels, and gives access (via pointed-arched doorways) to the main floors above and also to a secondary, intra-mural chamber in the S wall. At first-floor level a doorway leads E from the stairs into a double-height, vaulted-ceilinged, intra-mural chamber in the S wall. Access to its upper area, at second-floor level, was either via an internal wooden stairs or from the main chamber to the N. The main chamber has a blocked-up window in a large, centrally placed embrasure in the W wall flanked by cupboards to N and S. Beam-slot holes at the N and S ends of the wall took wall-plates carried on opposing corbels, two of which survive on the N and S walls marking second-floor level where the main chamber has a similar blocked window in a centrally placed embrasure in the W wall. A plain doorway in the N return of the embrasure gives to small, intra-mural chamber, lit by a loop in the W wall. There is a cupboard to S. A dressed jambstone in the N wall marks a doorway into a now destroyed intra-mural chamber. At third-floor level there are traces of an intra-mural chamber in the S wall which was accessed from the main chamber to the N which has a plain cut-stone fireplace in the W wall, flanked by a robbed-out, twin-light, ogee-headed window to N and a cupboard to S. Modern crenelations top the walls. In 1987 the four walls were standing and at ground-floor level there was a modern entrance in the E wall and the fireplace in the N wall contained a large wooden lintel. At first-floor level a lintelled-doorway in the NE angle gave to an intra-mural chamber and there was a round-headed window in the E wall. At second-floor level there was a large blocked-up, cut stone fireplace and round-headed window in the E wall. A Sheela-na-gig (KD032-019001-; Guest 1936, 113 for illustration) was formerly beside the entrance. It was rescued from the rubble after the section of the tower-house collapsed and has been set in a niche in the interior of the N wall. Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy Updated by: Paul Walsh Date of upload: 5 December 2014