Farranrory Castle (in Ruins) — Farranrory Lower

On low rise of grassland in wet, poorly drained land in upland region with good views in all directions. A nearby stream is 60m to N. William Faninge is listed as proprietor of the castle in 1640 and it is is described as a 'good little castle with a good thatcht house & some cabbins', (Simington 1931, vol. 1, 115). According to the Ormond Deeds, a house at Farranrory belonging to William Fanyng, gent., was wilfully burned in 1555 (COD V, 70) and Edmund Fanning of Farranrory, gentleman, is noted in 1579 (COD V, 303). A 16th-century date is probable for this tower house, based on the presence of gun loops, armorial plaque and punch dressing. The remains of the circular tower house (int. diam. 5.3m; wall T 2.35m) stand to three storeys high, though only the lower walls of the top storey survive. Attached to the W face of the tower house are the remains of a ruined two-storey farmhouse (TS049-051002-) of possible 17th-century date. The tower house itself is situated in the centre of a disused farmyard, with ruined outhouses to N and one outhouse immediately to the S of the tower house. There are no remains visible of a bawn wall in the area around the farmyard. The tower house was built of roughly coursed limestone rubble, with a slight base-batter and a pointed doorway in the NW face of the castle. The doorway has limestone jambs with an external rebate to receive a yett and a yett-hole in the apex. Directly over the doorway there is a blank plaque, probably intended as an armorial plaque. The doorway has been blocked up, with a slit ope inserted in the blocking, and immediately S of the doorway is the N wall return of the added 17th-century farmhouse. Possibly the door was blocked when the 17th-century house was added, with new access into the tower house being from the ground floor of the new house, incorporating the original guardroom as the access passage. In the W face of the tower house here is evidence of an inserted doorway from the 17th-century house and also an inserted fireplace for the ground-floor chamber of this later house. Inside the main doorway of the tower house there is a lobby area protected by an overhead murder hole, a cruciform gun loop with fine foliate decoration opposite, and a guardroom to the S. There is evidence of a drawbar slot inside the doorway in the N face and a small reception hole in the S jamb opposite. To the N, a short mural passage contains a doorway into the ante-chamber from which the ground floor is accessed before leading to the spiral stairs in the N section of the tower. The ground floor is lit by three windows set into large segmental-arched embrasures with gun loops on either side of each window. The windows are round-headed with punch-dressed limestone jambs and the spandrels of the SE window are decorated with stiff-leaf foliage. The wooden first floor was carried on limestone corbels, accessed from the spiral stairs, lit by two ogee-headed windows and one round-headed window and was vaulted above. The destroyed third floor was also accessed from the spiral stairs but is no longer accessible and no features survive. A vaulted mural passage from the stairs at first-floor level in the N wall, with gun loop and slop-stone in the external face, leads to the murder-hole over the entrance lobby. Gun loops at ground floor and first-floor level are small circular holes constructed from two pieces of limestone, probably used for handguns. The walls of the tower house are in very poor condition, with trees growing down from the wall tops and several structural cracks visible in the N and S faces. There is good evidence for wicker centring on the underside of the segmental-arched embrasures and a fine vault over the first floor. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 26 August 2011