Castle (in Ruins) — Dunloe Lower

Dunloe Castle / Caisleán Dhún Ló: The building of a Castle at Dun Loich in 1215 by Maurice FitzGerald is recorded in a number of sources (O hlnnse 1947, 91). following the defeat of the Geraldines at the battle of Callan in 1261 it was 'demolished and burned' by the MacCarthys (AI). It seems to have been refortified soon afterwards, for in 1280 it was reported to have been 'evacuated by its guards through fear of Desmumu and MacCartagh, and it was burned after they had departed' (AI). The existing ruins at Dunloe, however, are those of a later tower house associated with the O'Sullivan Mores (Butler 1925, 47). 'Dun Loich on the River Leamhain' is noted as having been demolished by the Earl of Ormond in 1570 (AFM), but it appears to have been reoccupied by the O'Sullivans. One Daniel O’Sullivan of Dunloe represented Kerry in Parliament in 1613 (Smith 1756, 298). It was forfeited in 1656, and subsequently was acquired by Sir William Petty (King 1931, 130). In the late 1600s it became the property of the O'Mahony family, one of whom altered and renovated it in the 1820s. A pencil sketch of the renovated title by Westropp, dated 1891, is preserved in RIA MS 3 A 46. It is now, once again, in ruins. The tower house stands in the landscaped grounds of Dunloe Hotel on the N end of an elevated ridge which directly overlooks a bend of the River Laune at E. It appears to have been of rectangular plan originally, measuring 10.9m N-S x 8.05m E-W. The N and S walls average 1.8m in basal thickness. Undressed quoins, alternately face-bedded, are visible at the upper levels of the building. Most of the internal and external wall-faces have been obscured by early nineteenth-century plaster and render. The positions of the surviving original features suggest that the castle has four storeys; the much restored roof level has a machicolation and a bartizan. During the nineteenth-century renovations the E wall appears to have been completely rebuilt and partly set back from its original course, most of the windows were replaced by ogee-headed examples in brickwork, and a pointed doorway was inserted in the S wall at first floor level. The remains of some of the timber floors and wall-shutterings of the restored building survive in situ, but access to the upper floors is not possible. Traces of the blocked-up original entrance to the ground floor of the tower house are visible in the internal wall-face at N; these comprise its W jamb and a portion of an arch of pitched slabs. The ground floor is subdivided by an inserted cross-wall. The first floor was laid on wall-plates supported on rough corbels in the N and S walls. A greatly modified window embrasure occurs at the W end of the N wall at this level; externally it was fitted with a hood moulding, traces of which remain. In the W ingoing of its embrasure is the entrance to a mural passage and stair which may have given access to the second floor level. In the S wall at first floor level the remains of a cut limestone fireplace are preserved. Now blocked with red brick, its lintel features a moulded edge and the face of its surviving jamb, at E, is decorated with a simple, tightly coiled spiral. The mural stairway at W, lit by a splayed lintelled loop, is interrupted at second floor level by an inserted fireplace. Its lintel and surviving jamb are of cut and chamfered limestone. There are remains of a second, similar fireplace at third floor level, also in the W wall. The ivy-covered roof-level of the tower house appears to have been extensively renovated but a number of original features are preserved. These include some projecting dripstones at N and S and a series of simple merlons on the parapet at N, S and W; the remaining merlons are of concrete. A machicolation, obscured by ivy, occurs midway along the W parapet and a bartizan, supported on pointed limestone corbels, occurs at the SW angle. A stretch of the parapet oversails the wall at S, close to the bartizan. A number of architectural fragments of cut limestone lie on the steps which ascend to the nineteenth-century doorway at S. These include three chamfered sills from two-light windows and two chamfered window jambs. All bear sinkings for bars. About 30m to SW of the tower house, in dense overgrowth, is a short stretch of what may have been a bawn wall. It stands to an average height of 2.2m and displays evidence of modern repair. The above description is derived from A. O'Sullivan and J. Sheehan (compilers), 'The Iveragh peninsula: an archaeological survey of South Kerry'. Cork University Press (1996), no. 1109. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 31 July 2013