Castle (in ruins) — Behamore (hawkshaw)

Situated on a gradual N-facing slope in gently undulating pasture/tillage. A late sixteenth/early seventeenth-century four-storey tower house (ext. dims. 8.4m N-S; wall T 1.77m), with attic composed of roughly coursed limestone rubble with cut and dressed quoins which have been robbed at the SW and NW angles up to a height of 3.2m. There is a slight base batter (H 2.35m) and evidence of a basal plinth. The exterior has been rendered and there are remains of internal plaster, with plank centring on window embrasures. The floors are timber throughout. The E wall, containing the entrance, has collapsed. The entrance doorway led into a lobby which gave access to a guardroom to the N and spiral stairs in the SE angle, only one step of which survives in situ. The ground floor is filled with rubble. All loops and windows have punch dressing and external chamfers. On the W wall at ground-floor level the external face of a window jamb is decorated with three triskele motifs. There is a single-light window in N and S walls of the first floor with gun loops on either side. Also a shot-hole is visible in the external S face at second-floor level. Of the fireplace at second-floor level, only the flue survives. A large slop-stone projects from a blocked ope in the N face of this floor. A mural passage in the S wall at this level leads to a garderobe chute in the SW angle which exits at first-floor level in the W face. The third floor has flat-headed two-light windows with hood-mouldings. A series of seven drip-stones project at parapet level on the S face and there are the remains of a stepped parapet on the N wall. A bartizan occupies the SW angle. An external earthen bank curves around the W side of the site and terminates at the S wall. This may be a late feature, dumped material or may be related to the exit of the garderobe chute, perhaps a cesspit. An earthen bank which appears to be a tree-ring (TN011-020002-) encloses the tower house. On the 1st ed. OS 6-inch map (1840) the site is depicted as being surrounded by a rectangular enclosure which by the 1903 ed. is replaced by a curving enclosure. The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Tipperary. Vol. 1 - North Tipperary' compiled by Jean Farrelly and Caimin O'Brien (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2002). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 22 September 2008