Bawn in Moycarky

Situated on the summit of a natural rise with good views in all directions. Described in the Civil Survey (1654-6) as 'a bawne and castle in repaire' (Simington 1931, vol. 1, 57). Wm Cantwell is listed as proprietor in 1640 (ibid.). A four storey tower house with an attic (TN047-068002) and a two-storey turret running the length of the N wall, built of roughly coursed limestone rubble with large well-cut quoins and a high, slim base-batter (H 2.4m). There is a well-preserved bawn (dims. 45.5m N-S; 54.5m E-W between angle towers) with circular towers at the NE and SW angles and a bartizan at the NW angle. There is evidence of a wall-walk which provided access to cross-loops - two survive in the N wall and one in the E and W walls. The bartizan was accessed via steps from an embrasure in the bawn. The centre of the N wall has been destroyed. The entrance does not survive. The SW angle tower (int. dim. 2.5m; wall T 1.5m) consists of three storeys. The ground floor is entered through a pointed doorway at NE, built at right angles into the internal bawn wall. It has wooden floors throughout, accessed from mural stairs and has gun loops, square, round or cruciform, at every level. The three-storey NE angle tower was subject to alteration in the late eighteenth/nineteenth-century when it was used as a summerhouse or gazebo. The interior was plastered and windows were altered and inserted. It is entered through a pointed doorway at SW and has a number of gun loops. The first floor is entered from the mural stairs through a flat-headed doorway at N. It has a finely executed fireplace with roll-moulding on the jambs and has punch and diagonal tooling, the lintel curves with the wall. A narrow doorway at SW at first-floor level leads outside the bawn. The second floor, most altered, is entered in the E. The bawn appears to be the result of two phases of activity - the first associated with the tower house in the late fifteenth/early sixteenth-century and in the second phase during the seventeenth-century the wall was partially rebuilt and the angle towers were constructed. A sheela-na-gig (TN047-068003), now lost, was formerly located in the S wall of the tower house.. 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