Clonyharp Castle (in Ruins) — Clonyharp (clogher Par.)

On top of a natural rock outcrop with good views in all directions. In the Civil Survey (1654-6) the castle is described as a manor which is in 'repaire and garrisoned', with the proprietor in 1640 listed as Anthony O'Dwyer (Simington 1934, vol. 2, 100). It was described by O'Donovan in the OS Letters in 1840 as a square tower measuring 29ft [8.8m] by 36ft 9 inches [11.2m] surviving 20ft [6m] high, with a vault over the ground floor, and a partially destroyed stairs in SE corner (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 1, 103). The ITA survey of 1943 describes the castle as surviving two-storeys high with a vault over the first floor with evidence of a garderobe and a large rectangular window in the S wall at first-floor level (ITA survey 1943). The poorly preserved tower house (ext. dims. 6.6m E-W; 2.4m N-S; wall T 0.85m), now has only the SE angle, with a short stretch of the S and E walls, surviving to first-floor level, with evidence of a spiral stairs in the SE angle. The walls are constructed of roughly coursed limestone rubble with hammer-dressed, alternating quoin stones and a high base-batter. There is good evidence of internal lime wash visible at the W end of the S wall where there is an embrasure of a possible window. A slit-ope visible in the S wall at ground-floor level gave light to the spiral stairs. The W jambs of a doorway leading off the stairs into the first floor are all that survives at this level. A modern farmyard to the W and N of the tower house may incorporate remains of the original bawn wall and the fine 18th-century farmhouse located immediately to the E of the tower house may have been built from the fabric of the castle. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 26 August 2011