Castle — Nenagh North

National Monument No. 513. Situated on flat ground at the N end of Nenagh town, Nenagh castle was the chief residence of Theobald Walter and served as the main seat of the Butler family until the second half of the fourteenth century. It was in the hands of the Mac Ibrien family in the fifteenth century and returned to Butler ownership in 1533 under Piers Butler, Earl of Ossory (Gleeson and Leask 1936, 254-5). Dated by Leask to the period 1200-1220 based on the use of chevron and [the position of the keep] (its position) in relation to the curtain wall (ibid., 268-9). In 1332 the 'prisoners took the castle of Nennogh and the gates there was burned; which was recovered again and the prisoners kept' (Cal. Carew MSS, 159). In the extent of Nenagh, the castle in 1338 is described as 'A castle surrounded with five towers, a hall, a house beyond the gate, a kitchen with stone walls roofed with shingles' (Cal. inq. post mortem vol. 8, no. 184). The castle is described in the Civil Survey 1654-6 as a 'Castle lately repayred by Collonell Abbott to this mannor apptaineth a court leet and a courte Barron with all the rights, privileges & imunities beloning to a manor', with the Countess of Ormond being listed as the proprietor in 1640 (Simington 1934, vol. 2, 295). After the Williamite wars, Nenagh castle was one of a number of castles to be dismantled as a precaution against their use in any future disorders (Gleeson and Leask 1936, 258). In the eighteenth century Solomon Newsome tried to blow up the castle which left a large breach now visible in the N wall at ground-floor level (ibid., 259). This is an impressive thirteenth-century castle, five-sided in plan, consisting of a circular keep (int. diam. 7.3m; wall T. 5m) at the N angle, flanking towers at the E and W angles, a large twin-towered gatehouse to the S and a curtain wall (T 2.7m) all around. There are no visible remains of the W tower while only fragmentary remains survive of the flanking tower on the E side. There may have been a postern gate or sallyport immediately SW of the E tower as there is the trace of a springing arch of a gateway (Gleeson and Leask 1936, 264). Of the curtain wall only a short stretch survives where it adjoins the SE face of the keep while only the tie stones survive on the W face. The keep itself was constructed with uncoursed rubble limestone with base-batter and stands four storeys high above which there is a Victorian addition from the latter half of the nineteenth century (ibid., 259). The main first-floor entrance at SE consists of of a round-headed doorway (now blocked up) situated between the remaining section of curtain wall (containing a possible garderobe chute) and a short stretch of walling protruding from the keep slightly to the W of the blocked-up doorway. This arrangement of the curtain wall with garderobe and a second wall to the W suggests that the doorway may have been protected by a stone fore-building. The main entrance leads into a lobby area from which the upper floors could be accessed via the spiral stairs contained within the thickness of the wall at S. Access to the ground floor was from the first-floor hall either by a wooden stairs or by a trapdoor in the floor. The ground floor is featureless and has an eighteenth-century breach in the wall at N (ibid., 259). The first floor is lit by two long plunging arrowloops with sandstone surrounds set into deep wide round-arched embrasures at N and S. The second floor appears to have been the main public hall of the castle and is entered through a chevron-decorated arch which was probably lit by a sandstone pointed window set into the wall in a similar fashion to the surviving NW window at third-floor level. Other features of the second floor include a destroyed fireplace at W which had a sloping stone fire-hood in a manner similar to Roscrea castle (TN012-010007-). Beside the fireplace to the N there is a round-arched window embrasure. A doorway in the W splay of this window leads to an external round-arched doorway from which the wall-walk of the curtain wall was accessed. The hall was lit by long narrow plunging arrowloops set into large deep round-arched embrasures set into the wall at NE, E and S. Double corbels set opposite each other provided support for a decorative timber ceiling. The third storey was probably the private residential hall of the lord. It has a partially destroyed fireplace at W with engaged sandstone columns and decorated capitals which supported a sloping stone fire-hood. Lighting was provided by five large windows. The rear arch of the SW window embrasure, which also acts as the entrance lobby, is decorated with a triple roll sandstone moulding while the other window embrasures are flat-headed, segmental and shouldered. The shouldered or Caernarvon arch is generally dated to the end of the thirteenth century and may be part of the refurbishment of the castle during this period (Gleeson and Leask 1936, 249). The W splay of the NW window embrasure contains a doorway which gives access to a box machicolation which helped protect the curtain wall where it joins onto the keep. The pointed N window is of sandstone and is not flush with the external face of the wall; it is set into a segmental-pointed embrasure. The gatehouse (ext. dims. 22.8m E-W; 12.5m N-S) at the S consists of a two-storey central rectangular block with two D-shaped flanking towers of which only the E tower survives. Recent excavations indicate that the gatehouse complex was constructed in two phases with a fine two-storey hall added to the rear of the twin-towered gatehouse in the latter half of the thirteenth century (Hodkinson 1999, 162-82). This two-storey hall had rib vaulting over the ground floor supported by a series of centrally placed pillars (ibid., 165). The first floor was lit by large pointed sandstone windows with the first-floor entrance in the N wall located off-centre to the E (ibid., 164-5). The gatehouse was entered through a large round-headed archway with evidence of a portcullis slot and was accessed by a drawbridge, the two-slot pit of which was unearthed during the recent excavations (ibid., 163-4). The excavation revealed that the ground floor entrance to the W flanking tower is concealed behind blocking. The ground floor chambers of the hall were divided by a central passage, possibly barrel vaulted (ibid., 165). A coin, minted between 1205 and 1218, was discovered in the base of the foundation of the gatehouse which suggests that it was built during the minority of Theobold II, who succeeded Theobold I (ibid., 178). No evidence of an external moat was uncovered although it is very likely that the castle was externally defended by a moat. 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 Part of this monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 2/1984).