Ballagh Castle — Ballagh (clonoulty Par.)

In flat, poorly drained grassland with good views in all directions. Described in the Civil Survey (1654-6) as 'one small castle wantinge repaire with fower Cabbyns' (Simington 1934 vol. 2, 95), in the possession of Connor O'Dwyer of Ballagh (ibid.). Described in the OS letters as a square castle of which the N and E walls missing except a portion of the SE angle and measured 29 feet 4 inches [9.4m] E-W by 29 feet [8.8m] N-S, with walls forty feet [12m] high and 6 feet 6 inches [1.95m] thick, with a pointed doorway on the E wall near the SE angle (O'Flanagan 1930 vol. 1, 103). Today the building is missing its SE angle and E doorway and consists of a rectangular masonry structure (ext. dims. 8.2m N-S;7.6m E-W; wall T 1.7m) of which only the partial remains of the W and S walls survive (approx. H 13m). It was built of roughly coursed limestone rubble with dressed quoin stones and a slight base-batter (H 2.1m; Wth 0.3m). It stands three storeys high, and had a barrel vault over the first floor and a wooden floor over the ground floor which was carried on large joist holes (H above floor 3.2m) still visible in the W wall. The main hall was the chamber over the vault which had the best and largest windows in the form of a twin-light ogee-headed window set in the centre of the S and W walls of which only the S window partially survives with evidence of a decorated spandrel. There is good quality arcading on the inner face of the W wall at first-floor level, a destroyed wall-walk carried on corbels visible on the inner face of the W wall and a destroyed bartizan at the SW angle at wall-walk level, of which only the corbels survive. A double-splayed single-light window is set into the centre of the S and W walls at ground-floor level and single-light flat-headed windows in the centre of the S and W walls at first-floor level. There is no surviving evidence of any doorway or stairs. Three wall niches survive at ground-floor level in the S wall and two in the W wall. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 26 August 2011