Coolamber Castle — Coolamber

Within the interior of a possible early medieval ringwork (LF016-018003-) that was subsequently reused as a bawn (LF016-018002-). Possibly the residence of Thomas Nugent, one of the commissioners for Plantation of Longford in 1620 (Cal. pat. rolls Ire., Jas I, 469). Described by Lewis (1837, vol. 2, 581) as ‘the ruins of an old castle, which was beseiged by Oliver Cromwell, it formed the boundary of the English Pale’. This fortified house (overall ext. dims. 23.3m N–S; 10.75m E–W) consisted of a two-storey block with an adjoining four-storey tower at its N end. Only fragmentary remains of the walls (max. H 2m) of the two-storey block (approx. int. dims. 16m N–S; 7.5m E–W; wall T 1.6m) survive. Springers in the external face of the S wall of the tower indicate that there was a barrel vault over its ground floor, probably covering the area over the entrance chamber. There would have been another room to the S of this. No trace of the original doorway survives but it may have been in the E wall where there is a large breach opposite the causewayed entrance into the bawn. No architectural features survive. A scar line noted on the external face of the S wall of the tower in 1975 (SMR file) indicates that the roof over this block was gabled. The N and E walls of the tower (ext. dims. 10.6m E–W; 5.6m N–S) survive to wall-walk level, while the W end of the S wall and the W wall have collapsed. The internal face of the N wall is partially covered in ivy at second- and third-floor levels. A base-batter is evident and alternating quoins stones are punch dressed. There is a barrel vault over the ground floor (int. dims. 8.5m E–W; 3.4m N–S; wall T 1m); joist-holes above this in the N and S walls indicate that all the other floors were wooden. A blocked-up doorway, located off-centre to the W in the S wall, gave access to the ground floor of the adjoining block of the house. Another blocked-up doorway near the S end of the W wall led to a mural stairs in the W wall, which accessed the spiral stairs in the NW angle. Apart from a curve in the wall face, indicating its location, no trace of the spiral stairs survives. It was lit by narrow, flat and ogee-headed windows. A chamber (int. dims. 7m E–W; 3m N–S; wall T 1m) on the first floor was lit by an ogee-headed slit ope in the NE angle, flanked by a gun loop to the W, and by a centrally located window in the E wall as well as one off–centre to the W in the N wall. A broken-out fireplace in the centre of the N wall is a fine cut-stone example, with chamfered, punch-dressed jambs and lamp brackets on either side of the destroyed joggle-jointed lintel. A destroyed doorway in the SE angle accessed the first floor of the adjoining block. Remains of broken-out centrally located windows are also visible on the ground, second and third floors of the E wall. Those on the second and third floors consist of flat-headed, single lights. Single lights in the centre of the N wall at second-floor level and off-centre to the E on the third floor are now partially ivy covered. Immediately to the E of the example on the second floor an external chimneystack was carried on two corbels that are visible on the external wall face. The punch-dressed quoins, fireplaces, ogee-headed angle loops, gun loop and flat-headed limestone windows suggest that this house dates to the late 16th/ early 17th-century. A church (LF016-015001-) and graveyard (LF016-015002-) lie c. 475m to the NW. (Moore 2007, No. 21) Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 27 September 2012