Castle (in ruins) — Ballynakill

Located in undulating pastureland on a gradual W-facing slope. Described in the Civil Survey (1654-6) as a 'castle in repayre a bawne out of repayre & a windmill in repayre' (Simington 1931, vol. 1, 15). Richard Butler is listed as proprietor in 1640 (ibid.). A late sixteenth/early seventeenth-century four-storey tower house (ext. dims. 13.1m NE-SW x 9.9m NW-SE) with a later house (TN017-009003-) added to the SE face in the mid/late seventeenth century. A second pile was added to this and all was modified in the eighteenth-century and incorporated into a large H-plan house, enclosed by an unusually large bawn (TN017-009002-). The tower house was constructed of roughly coursed sandstone rubble with substantial quoins and architectural details were in limestone. It had a very gradual base-batter (H 2.2m; Wth 0.1m). The fenestration was much altered in the eighteenth century. Apart from a round-headed single-light window at ground-floor level in the NE face most of the surviving original windows are flat-headed single or two-lights with hood-mouldings. These are best preserved on the NE face where the central section was left intact. The NW face was completely modified in keeping with the eighteenth-century block to the SE. Nothing remains of the original opes. The façade consists of two long and rectangular central windows with two concave niches on either side, this is repeated at all levels. The third-floor façade is reduced in height and is decorated with four recessed blind oculi with brick surrounds. A breach between ground and first-floor level in the SE wall of the tower house appears to have been made to gain access from the later addition, presumably via steps. A small fireplace was built into the external SE face of the tower house, utilising and narrowing an existing flue. This external face becomes the internal face of seventeenth and later eighteenth-century additions. The original entrance to the tower house at the S end of the SW face has completely collapsed and the entrance has been crudely widened; it is now partially blocked up with stones. Above the doorway there is a square recess which is now empty but presumably contained a family coat of arms and/or foundation date. This entrance gave access to a double lobby which has the remains of wicker centring on a vaulted roof. The lobby is protected by a murder-hole accessed from the mural chamber above. There is a guardroom immediately SE of the doorway. From the second lobby one could access the ground-floor chamber or the spiral stairs in the W angle which gave access to all upper floors. The ground floor is filled with rubble. There are two original wall-cupboards but most features are destroyed. Two large window openings are broken through in the NW face and there is an original small narrow embrasure, blocked up and hidden on the external face by a blind niche. A central embrasure in the NE wall has been badly damaged and a narrow round-headed single-light window E of this large window is also partially damaged. Later windows have been inserted at first-floor level. The main chamber at this level has a probable fireplace in the centre of the SE wall which has been broken through on the E side and a mural chamber in the SW wall accessed from the main chamber. The wall dividing the main room from the mural chamber to the SW has been broken through. At second-floor level only the S chamfered limestone jamb of the original fireplace in the SE wall is intact. As on other floors most of the opes have been modified. The third floor is in bad condition. The inner face of the NE wall has collapsed, though remains of a two-light window survive. The SE wall has largely collapsed revealing a chimneybreast. The wall E of this has been rebuilt. A small chimney surmounts the W end of the NW wall. An unusual angled bartizan projects internally and externally at the S angle of the third-floor level - the SW side protecting the main entrance. The SE side has been badly damaged by the addition of the later building. The bawn (dims. 76m NE-SW x 137m NW-SE; int. H 5.3m; ext. H c. 7m), built on bedrock and composed of randomly coursed sandstone rubble, with slight base-batter discernible on the SW wall, is well preserved. There is a natural ledge which extends 7m beyond the bawn wall along the W side. The original entrance was in the SE wall (Wth 3.6m), and the later entrance immediately S of this, with the foundations of the original bawn across the entrance. There was a second original entrance in the NW wall (Wth 2.8m), which is now partially blocked and a smaller opening has been made. The N sector of the bawn is raised 1.35m and is retained by a stone wall which fouls the original NW entrance - this is probably landscaping associated with the eighteenth-century occupation. A large eighteenth-century entrance lies immediately W of this original entrance. Between the original and later eighteenth-century entrance there is a small pedestrian entrance (H 2.5m H; Wth 1.17m) consisting of a round-headed voussoir arch with roughly cut sandstone surrounds. This doorway is not visible internally; the interior appears to have been refaced. There are a number of gun loops in the bawn at both lower and wall-walk level. They are particularly numerous at the N end of the NE wall where there are sixteen horizontal gun-loops at lower bawn level with gun-loops at regular intervals at parapet level. There are four gun-loops in the bawn at the N end of the NW wall, N of the gateways. The NW angle is protected by a corner bartizan resting on five corbels, the super-structure does not survive. A tower projects externally roughly midway along the SW wall. It has been much altered, probably in the eighteenth century, and is partially destroyed but appears to be original. Doorways in the bawn wall on either side of this tower are later insertions. A large fireplace on the internal wall utilises the E wall of this tower. W of this there is a flat-headed doorway (Wth 0.9m; H c. 1.75m), now blocked, with a large stone lintel in a recess in the wall. In the NE wall there is a chimney stack on the wall-walk, effectively blocking it. There is a gun-loop in the bawn wall directly below this stack, with no visible evidence of a fireplace or building adjoining this wall, internally or externally. 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