Castle Well — Kilcolman (youghalarra Par.)

Situated on high ground in an upland area with extensive views. Described in the Civil Survey (1654-6) as a 'castle with a Barbicon and five thacht Tennements' (Simington 1934, vol. 2, 140). Several landowners are listed as proprietors, including 'Mortagh O Bryen of Kilcolman gt.[,]John O Hogan of Curraghtemple gt.[,]Donogh O Hogan of the same gt. & Donogh O Hogan of Bellarussion gt. all Irish Papists' (ibid.). Present remains consist of an ivy-covered tower house (TN020-044001) surviving four storeys high built with roughly coursed sandstone rubble and slight base-batter. The N, S and W walls survive with no evidence of the E wall. The site is located in the NW angle of a nineteenth-century courtyard with a big house immediately to the E. Externally the walls are rendered with good evidence of whitewashed internal surfaces. A single-light flat-headed window with chamfered sandstone jambs is visible at the centre of the N and S walls at ground-floor level. Both windows are set into flat-headed lintelled embrasures with wicker centring. There is evidence of a destroyed barrel vault over the second floor with evidence of joist-holes for a wooden floor at other levels. A possible bawn wall is attached to the SE and NE angles with later nineteenth-century alterations visible. A natural spring well, enclosed by a drystone wall, known as 'the Castle Well' is located to the N of the tower house. The OS Letters describe the tower as standing to its full height with timber and slate roof with nineteenth-century alterations to wall-walk which is now destroyed. They also mention the presence of a blocked-up main doorway at the centre of the W wall with a machicolation directly over at wall-walk level (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 3, 13-14). Drain-holes with accompanying drip-stones project from the top of the tower. A flat-headed and a pointed doorway were inserted in the N wall at ground and first-floor level respectively. 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