Dunmahon Castle — Dunmahon

Four storeys high, it was formerly the residence of Henry Townley in 1659 but is now in a very dangerous condition. It is built of roughly coursed limestone and greywacke rubble, has large undressed boulder quoin stones and is bonded with shell and pebble mortar. Access is through a doorway in the N wall which leads to the stairwell immediately to its E, and to the ground floor barrel-vaulted area. It has a tower at the NW angle which projects northwards and contains the garderobes. The tower in the NE angle, which contains the stairwell, projects eastwards. The main doorway has a two centred arch constructed of small greywacke slabs and there is no evidence of any dressed stone. It has a bar hole in its W jamb and a murder hole over the inner portion of the doorway and entrance to the stairwell. The N wall has the remains of two large windows, one at first-floor level, the other at the second. That at the lower level is completely broken out except for half a limestone slab sill, while the upper portion has punch-dressed limestone jambs extant. They are chamfered and have glazing bar holes. The third-floor level has a slit window. The upper portion of the walls or battlements are stepped upwards from the centre of the walls to the angles. The angle between the garderobe tower and the N wall has a squinch at the upper level. The E wall has a double-splayed ope at ground-floor level and corbels projecting from its face at third-floor level to carry a chimney stack for the fireplaces on the first and second floors. The NE angle-tower has three slit opes in its E wall and two in its S. They are constructed with block limestone or greywacke jambs and slab lintels. The top portions of the angle-towers all slightly oversail the lower sections of the walls and are supported on rows of small corbels. The S wall also has a double-splayed loop at ground-floor level, rectangular windows at the first- and second-floors and a single slit ope at the third floor. That at the first-floor level is broken out but the one above it retains its punch-dressed limestone jambs and lintel with hood moulding over. The W wall has the remains of two rectangular windows, one at first-floor level and the other at second, and a double-splayed ope at the ground floor. The garderobe tower has three slit opes one above the other in the W wall. The internal area of the first floor has the remains of a large fireplace in the E wall. The garderobe chamber is recessed in the NE corner of the first floor. Its chamber is 0.71m by 0.63m and has a corbelled roof c. 2.3m high. There are two cubby-holes in the SE angle of the main chamber. The second floor was carried by large wooden beams. The garderobe chamber on the second floor is now only accessible by ladder from first-floor level. It is slightly larger than that of the first to allow the chute, situated in the NW corner of the chamber, to get past the lower floor level. The top of the stairwell gives access to the wall-walk and the upper levels of the angle-towers. There are two storeys above the level of the main roof in the angle-towers, and access to the upper one is gained by stone steps set into the wall which follow the line of the battlements. There is no access to the third floor level of the main building from the stairwell which ascends directly from the second floor to the wall-walk. Access to the uppermost main storey must therefore have been gained by wooden steps from the second floor. The wall-walk is constructed of large limestone flags which slope to the outside, and are drained by holes in the battlement walls. These flagstones project by c. 0.1m beyond the line of the walls below and carry the extra width of the battlements. Large beam holes in the N and S walls appear to have been used to carry the roof. The angle-towers at the SE and SW project inwards over the corners of the main building and are supported on squinches rising from just below the ceiling level of the third floor. The clearance between the floor of the uppermost storey and its ceiling is only 1.6m, which is hardly enough to stand up in. The garderobe tower in the NW angle at this level has no chute in it. (Wright 1758, bk II, pl. XII; Tempest 1906, 78-83; CLAJ 1925, 48) The above description is derived from both the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Louth' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1986) and the 'Archaeological Survey of County Louth' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1991). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 17 July 2007