Kilcoursey Castle — Kilcoursey

Located on top of a hill with good extensive views in all directions. The hill is steeply sloped at S which may have acted as a natural form of defence for the castle. The tower house is built of roughly coursed limestone rubble and was originally three storeys high however the second floor is now destroyed with evidence of a wall walk surviving at NE corner. The bawn wall (OF008-016001-) runs from the SW corner in a W direction and rejoins the Tower house on its NE corner thus defending the original doorway which is now destroyed but was located at the centre of the N wall. This destroyed doorway gave access to the ground floor (int. dims. 5.5m N-S by 4m E-W, wall T 1.15m) with attic which had a barrel vaulted roof. The wooden floor of this attic measured 1.95m above ground floor level. First floor accessed by mural stairs in the N wall (Wth 0.6m). This stairways leads up to the NE corner of the first floor (int. dims. 5m by 5m) which was well lit by a large destroyed window at the E end of the S wall. There are several musket loops present on the S and W walls. Access to the stairs is through a destroyed door on the NW corner of the first floor which leads to the destroyed second floor which had a door in its NE corner. The ground floor with attic above was probably the storage area with the first and second floors being the main living area. The first floor had a wooden roof with evidence of stone corbels on the W wall located 2m above floor level. The musket loops at ground floor were located on the S and E walls which indicates that these walls were not protected by a bawn wall. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Offaly' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 23 May 2011