Indicated — Island

On the shores of Island lake, associated with a moated site (MA093-017006-) and earthworks (MA093-017001-). Named ‘Island House’ on the 1838 and 1916 OS 6-inch maps, this fortified house built of rubble limestone with dressed limestone quoins is T-shaped in plan. Aligned roughly NE−SW, it is described here for convenience as if on a N−S axis. It appears to have been built in two phases: The earliest part is the almost square, tower-like N projection (stem of the ‘T’), to which the larger rectangular E−W block (bar of the ‘T’) was added; the wall join between the two parts is clearly visible. The earlier building may have been a form of tower house or small fortified house; gun loops suggest that it dates to late 16th- or early17th-century; the E−W block was added later in the 17th-century or early 18th century. The house as a whole has three steep-pitched gables, each topped by a chimney, one on the N wall of the N projection, the other two at either end of the main E−W block. It is roofless; the walls stand to full height, but there are several breaches and damaged sections; the quoins are robbed out to a height of 1-1.5m above ground level from NW corner of the N tower and from the NE corner of E−W block; and most of the windows have been robbed of their stone lintels and sills. There were timber floors throughout; stone corbels projecting from the E and W walls of the tower and putlog holes in the walls of the E−W bock indicate their original position. Heaps of stone rubble fill the interior, and alder and hawthorn trees grow there. Rubble heaps also abut the exterior face of the N wall, flanking the tower. The N projection/tower (7.1m NW−SE; 6.63m NE−SW; Wall T 1.2m) is a two-storey building with attic. The N gable, topped with a chimney, has a string course on the exterior wall face. A central doorway (Wth 1.9m; H 2.2m) in the N wall at ground floor, topped by a shallow voussoir arch, retains a step and block punch-dressed surround, and two large flat slabs form a threshold. The doorway is carefully blocked up with mortared masonry –this may to have been done when the main E−W block was occupied; there are remnants of plaster/render on the masonry infilling the doorway and also on the surrounding wall face. Two gun loops flank the doorway, one on each side, and another gun loop (now broken out on exterior) extends through the NW angle of the wall. A small window, with a chamfered cut-stone surround, at the E end of this wall at first floor level appears to have a gun loop in the NE angle it embrasure. The W wall has a large breech midway along its length at ground floor level –possibly there was a window or gun loop embrasure here; it is blocked up now with rough rubble walling. There is a rectangular window roughly midway in the wall at first floor level. The E wall similarly has a central large rectangular window at first floor level, and is pierced by gunloops at both ground and first floor levels. Gun loops at ground and first floor level in the S wall, which is now incorporated into the N wall of the main E−W block, are proof that this portion of the building was originally a standalone house. At ground floor level in the S wall a central doorway opens into the E−W block; the W jamb survives, furnished with a drawbar socket, but the remainder of the doorway is broken out; this breech extends up through first floor level, where there was most likely a corresponding doorway. There is small flat-lintelled ground floor fireplace immediately to W of the central doorway in the N wall. A larger fireplace is located at first floor level directly above the doorway, indicating that this was the main chamber. Knox (1911, 332) recorded that this portion of the house overlies a ‘roofed culvert’ or drain which channelled water from a wet hollow c. 200m W of the house and carried it to the lake. The rectangular E−W block (18.47 NE−SW; 7.6m NW−SE; wall T 0.65-0.7m) is two storey with attic. The S wall/main elevation has four bays with an off-centre, ground floor doorway. The windows in the four bays on the first floor are identical plain rectangular embrasures; at ground floor level, there are three corresponding windows with the doorway in the third bay from the W. A small narrow rectangular window (Wth 0.5m), which retains its stone lintel, flanks the E side of the doorway, intervening between it and the easternmost ground floor window. Only one window (Wth 0.94m; H c. 1.35m) (second from W ground floor -blocked up) is intact, retaining both lintel and sill. The doorway is broken out, but the E jamb is intact; the breech extends upwards through the wall to the level of the window above. The W gable has no windows. It has two fireplaces (now partly concealed by loose rubble) at ground floor level, indicating that this end of the building was divided by an E−W partition (now gone) into two rooms. The N room was lit by two rectangular windows in the N wall, with a wall cupboard (W 0.74m; D 0.38m; H 1.2m) between the two windows. The S room was lit by at least one window in the S wall, and has a lintelled rectangular recess (Wth 0.68m; D 0.37m; H 1.16m) at the S end of the W wall. A fireplace is located off centre to S at first floor level. The E gable has a large central fireplace at ground floor (robbed of its stone lintel and surround), flanked by two recesses/wall cupboards, that to N intact (Wth 0.76m; D 0.6m; H 1.2m), that to S ruined. At first floor level a small fireplace is tucked into the S side of the projecting main chimney flue which rises from the ground floor. There is large rectangular window at first floor level at N end of wall, and the attic level is lit by two small windows flanking the central chimney flue. The NE portion of the E end of the ground floor may have been partitioned off, with access to the exterior through a doorway in the N wall, evident now as a large lintelled opening. Knox (1911, 331) records that in the late 16th century Theobald Dillon bought these lands from the Mac Costellos, who had a castle here. Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy Date of upload: 26 July 2022