Currahill Castle (in ruins) — Currahill Lower

On level ground at the foot of hills which rise to the S, in an area of reclaimed wet and marshy terrain. According to Carrigan (1905, vol. 4, 321) this was a Butler castle and he refers to, 'David fitz Walter Butler, of Kerhill, (Currahill), [who] was pardoned, for a fine of 20s, Dec. 24th, 1576' and Richard Butler, of 'Kirrehill', who died on the 8th of May 1612. Carrigan (ibid.) goes on to relate how Walter Butler was in possession of Currahill in 1641, however he died before 1653 as at that time, 'the estate was forfeited under Cromwell, in the name of David Butler'. In 1677 Harvey Morres had a grant of, 'the castle, towne, and part of the lands of Kerrihill', where he settled following the eviction of the Butlers (ibid.). In 1664 Harvey Morres paind 6s. hearth-money for his house, presumably the tower house, in Kerrihill (ibid.). A tower house (overall dims. 10.5m NW-SE; 9m NE-SW; H 17m) built of roughly coursed rubble, with a high pronounced base-batter (H 3.6m; Wth 0.4m). The tower house survives up to third-floor level, but nothing survives of the roof level with parapet etc. The ground and second floor are barrel-vaulted. The garderobe chute (opening Wth 1.35m; D 1.1m) exits 1.5m from the S end of the SE wall. The tower house is entered via a pointed rebated doorway (H 2.05m; Wth 1.07m) at the W end of the NW wall, with a cut-stone vertical break in the base-batter on either side. This gives access to an entrance lobby which is protected overhead by a murder-hole. Opposite the main entrance there is a pointed doorway to the ground floor, another doorway in the NE wall gives access to a small lobby at the base of a mural stair which rises in the NW wall before turning in the N angle and continuing up the NE wall. The mural stair continues as a spiral stair in the E angle at second-floor level. The ground floor is lit by three loops within hour-glass embrasures, in the NE, SE and SW wall respectively, all within round-headed, internally straight-sided embrasures. The barrel-vaulted roof has wicker-centring, while the embrasures were constructed with plank centring. The first-floor is entered via a flat-headed doorway from the mural stair in the NE wall. It was lit by two windows, an ogee-headed single-light towards the S end of the SW wall and a broken out two-light flat-headed window in the NW wall with sandstone jambs and sill, both within internally straight-sided embrasures. On the W side of the window embrasure in the NW wall there is opening, with rebase and groove for a wooden cover, giving access to the murder-hole below. There is a large fireplace at the W end of the SW wall, the lintel and masonry above are missing. A pointed doorway at the E end of the SE wall gives access to an intramural garderobe chamber, with garderobe at the S end with small adjacent wall-cupboard. The main chamber has a small wall-cupboard at the N end of the NE wall. The second floor was carried on a wooden floor, supported by corbels in the NE and SW wall. It was entered via a doorway, now partially broken, from the spiral stair in the E angle, the stair at this point being lit by a loop at the E end of the SE wall. The second-floor chamber was lit by an ogee-headed single-light window, with external cusped spandrels, in the NW wall, within an internally straight-sided embrasure. There is a wall-cupboard at the N and the W end of the NW wall of the main chamber. A doorway at the N end of the NE wall of the chamber gives access to an L-shaped mural chamber which turns at the N angle and runs along the NE wall. This chamber is lit by a flat-headed single-light in the NW wall opposite the doorway and by a round-headed single-light window in the NE wall, towards the end of the chamber. The main chamber is vaulted over. Also at second-floor level, though entered separately from the spiral stair, is a garderobe in the SE wall, similar to that at first-floor level, though this garderobe is lit by a loop in the SE wall and a horizontal loop in the back wall of the chamber, at the S end of the SW wall. The spiral stair in the E angle continues up to third-floor level where it is lit by a loop at the E end of the SE wall. At third-floor level the doorway from the spiral stair, as wall as much of the NW and NE wall, are missing and there is also a large breach in the SW wall. At the W end of the NW wall there is an entrance to an oubliette (L c. 2m) in the floor below. The large chamber at this level was probably lit by at least three windows, in the NW, NE and SE wall respectively, though all three are broken out and only the S splay of the embrasure of the latter window survives. There is a wall-cupboard at the S end of the SE wall. Externally one of the tapering corbel supports of a machicolation survives at the S end of the SE wall. See attached: KK030-017----_01 Sketch plan of ground and first-floor level by Kieran Campbell, 16 May 1989 KK030-017----_02 Sketch plan of second and third-floor level by Kieran Campbell, 16 May 1989 Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 22 August 2023