Castle — Townparks (roscrea Par.)

National Monument No. 211. Situated in the town of Roscrea on rising ground with the River Bunnow immediately to the E and a church, round tower and friary nearby (TN012-010----). A timber castle, referred to in 1245 as a moat and wooden tower (mote et britagium) (Cal. doc. Ire. vol. 1, no. 2760), was built at Roscrea by the king's council in 1213 (Cunningham 1987, 71-4). It was built on church property and, according to an inquisition of 1245, the bishop stopped the work and threatened to excommunicate the justiciar and his men. However, he was persuaded to allow them to continue with the promise of compensation (Cal. doc. Ire. vol. 1, no. 2760) and, throughout the remainder of the 13th century, there are many references in official administration documents to the castle (Cal. doc. Ire. vols. 1-3, passim). Between 1278 and the early 1280s there are references to building works at Roscrea when the castle was rebuilt in stone under the direction of John de Lydyard (PRI rep. DK 36th, 47; Cal. doc. Ire. vol. 2, nos. 1570, 2336; vol. 3, no. 169). In 1315, when Edmond Butler was created first earl of Carrick, he was granted the manors and castles of Carrick and Roscrea (Curtis 1932, 207-8). Roscrea remained in Butler hands until 1703, when it was sold by the 2nd duke of Ormond. In the later 16th century the castle was in the possession of Sir Edmund Butler, a brother of the 10th earl, and Sir Edmund's son Piers, who was executed in 1597 (Gleeson 1947, 63-5). In 1631 Roscrea was leased to Mary Butler a daughter of the 11th earl of Ormond and her husband, Sir George Hamilton the elder (Manning 2001, 149-54). Hamilton appears to have died by the mid-1650s and his only son by Mary Butler died without issue in 1658. The castle was captured by Owen Roe O'Neill in 1646 and by the Cromwellians in 1650. It was described in the Civil Survey 1654-6 as 'one castle and a bawne with two turrets In Roscrea Inhabitted being in Repayre' (Simington 1931, vol. 1, 29) with the proprietor in 1640 being the Countess of Ormond. The Cromwellian garrison was still there in 1659 when 37 soldiers and their wives were recorded as being stationed there (Pender 1939, 318). A fine three-storey over basement house, called Damer House, was built within the castle in the early 18th century. The complex was used as an army barracks for most of the 19th century and is now a National Monument. The stone castle was built on the site of the early thirteenth-century timber castle and probably partly followed its outline. This is one of Leask's keepless castles with gatehouse at N, curtain wall and flanking angle towers at E and W (Leask 1936, 180-81) (int. dims. 57m E-W; 60m N-S; wall T 2.6-3.4m). The gatehouse (ext. dims. 17.2m E-W; 11.5m N-S; wall T 2.9m) stands three storeys high constructed with roughly coursed sandstone rubble which had Jacobean-style chimney stacks added in the seventeenth century and a slate roof added in the nineteenth century (Stout 1984, 117). Originally the castle was defended externally by the river to the E and a rock- cut moat (Wth 3m) which was discovered running along the W wall beside the SW tower (ibid., 121). A drawbridge and portcullis and an overhead machicolation of later date protected the main entrance at the gatehouse. The barrel vault over the gate-passage has been mostly reconstructed during the recent restoration and leads into the courtyard. Opposing doorways were built in the modern side walls of the passage but no evidence survived to suggest there were ever doors at these points. The ground-floor rooms at each side of the passage have original doorways in the south wall giving access from the courtyard. The W chamber has a basement prison accessed only through a trap door. A spiral stairs in the E wall of the gatehouse gives access to the upper floors. Also accessed off the spiral stairs at first-floor level was a pointed-arched doorway, which leads onto the wall-walk of the curtain wall at the NE angle. A large chamber with an impressive triple-bay groin-vaulted ceiling fills the entire first floor and is lit by large modern lancet-type windows set into large segmental-arched embrasures. The remains of an impressive fireplace are situated in the middle of the S wall and consist of engaged shafts rising from a decorated base with dogtooth decorated capitals which supported a stone canopy, now partly destroyed. The mouldings on the engaged columns and fireplace canopy are of the roll with frontal fillet type. The portcullis and drawbridge machinery was housed on the northern side of this chamber. A doorway in the NW angle gives access to a mural passage in the W wall, which leads to a garderobe contained within a heightened section of the curtain wall. The large chamber at second-floor level is, in its present form, a secondary feature. Originally it had low north and south side walls on the inner side of wall-walks with parapets and its roof abutted the east and west end sections of the gatehouse, which continued upwards to a higher level. Water from the roof flowed along these wall-walks to exit through gargoyles at the corners. Three of these redundant gargoyles survive in place. In a secondary phase of building the original north and south side-walls were removed and replacements built in line with the outer north and south faces of the tower. These walls contain tall segmental-arched window embrasures. An entrance in the W splay of the S window embrasure gives access to a mural passage, which leads to a spiral stairs from which the wall-walk and several mural chambers are accessed. A doorway at the W end of the N wall of the second-floor chamber gives access to a mural passage which leads to a spiral staircase in the NW angle which leads up to the wall-walk. Also accessed off the same passage is a flight of stairs, which leads down to the protruding SW angle tower. Here there is a doorway from which the wall-walk of the W curtain wall was accessed. A reused Early Christian cross-inscribed slab (TN012-010013-) was used as a door lintel in this mural passage. A third floor was inserted above the second floor in the 17th century and a number of fireplaces were added on the second and third floors. The curtain wall is pierced by several plunging cross-loops in large segmental-arched embrasures. A large gateway is situated off-centre to the S on the W portion of the curtain wall and was possibly blocked up when the construction of the castle was complete. The SW angle tower (ext. diam. 8.2m; wall T 2m) consists of three storeys with a gabled roof (modern) and a tall rectangular chimney stack and has a ground-floor entrance at E. There is also a first-floor doorway to E and doors leading onto the W and S wall-walks of the curtain wall. There are long cross-loops with sandstone surrounds providing flanking fire along the W facade of the curtain wall. A pointed doorway at the W end of the S wall beside the SW angle tower is a postern, which was protected externally by a drawbridge and by a later machicolation accessed from the wall-walk of the curtain wall. An impressive array of putlog holes is visible on internal face of the curtain wall along the W side. The SE angle tower consists of a D-shaped two-storey building (ext. dims. 10m E-W; 9m N-S; wall T 2.2m) with a gable at the west end. The 19th-century roof has recently been repaired. The tower possesses an impressive vaulted basement while the first floor was greatly altered in the eighteenth-century. Damer House (TN012-010009-), an imposing eighteenth-century house, was constructed in the S side of the courtyard with a large gateway of similar date and D-shaped gate lodge piercing the N side of the curtain wall and occupying the NE angle of the courtyard respectively (Stout 1984, 116). 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