Grallagh Castle (in Ruins) — Grallagh (graystown Par.)

On a gentle NE-facing slope in wet undulating pasture. An old farmhouse is located to SW, separated from the tower house by a modern concrete and stone wall which extends around NW and S of tower house. Part of the original bawn wall (TS053-012002-) runs N-S to E of the tower house. Peter Butler of Grallagh, 1521-1578, son of James Butler, 10th Bn. Of Dunboyne, granted Grallagh in latter's will in 1533 (Butler 1991, 387). In the Ormond Deeds Peter Butler fitz James of Grallagh is mentioned as the late sheriff of the liberty in 1560 (COD V, 120). Grallagh was ceded back to Lord Dunboyne in 1591 (ibid. 391). The Civil Survey 1654-6 describes the lands of Grallagh as having 'a good castle on them with a bawne & some few Tents. & Cabbins', with Thomas Butler of Kilconnel listed as proprietor in 1640 (Simington 1931, vol. 1, 244). The tower house (ext. dims. 9.8m NW-SE; 12.75m NE-SW; int. dims. 5.06m NW-SE; 7.6m NE-SW; wall T 2.3m-2.45m) is composed of limestone rubble, randomly coursed, with good cut limestone quoins, at S and W angles reconstructed by the OPW, and a base-batter (H 2.95m; Wth c.0.4m). OPW undertook repair work to the castle in the early 1940s. Windows are single and two-light, flat and ogee-headed with hood-mouldings, with reconstructed concrete mullions. Some of the windows, such as the two-light window in the NW wall at first-floor level, are later inserts with the remains of earlier windows visible in the wall fabric. At ground-floor level at the N end of the external NE face there is a narrow, pointed doorway with voussoirs, probably inserted in the 19th century into the exit of the garderobe chute. The tower house is entered through a doorway in the SW wall, raised above present ground level, with a yett hole at the apex of the doorway and two yett holes on the S jamb. The doorway led into a lobby area defended by a large murder-hole. A doorway to the SE led to a second small lobby area, protected by another overhead murder-hole. The ground floor chamber was entered from this lobby through a doorway, only the S jambs of which survive. Masonry has been broken out between the first lobby and ground-floor chamber to create a modern doorway. The ground-floor chamber is barrel-vaulted, with evidence of wicker-centring at apex, and has a cobbled floor with a raised area in the E quadrant. It is lit by two centrally placed narrow opes, in the NE and the NW walls, both within flat-headed embrasures. A flue has been inserted above the NW embrasure, and a wall cupboard is at the N end of the NW wall. A mural stair rises in the SW wall and turns at the S angle up the SE wall. Just after this turn there is a doorway, defended by a murder-hole, giving access to the upper levels of the stair. The first-floor is accessed via a pointed doorway on the mural stairs. This chamber is lit by a two-light window in the SW wall, with a gun-loop on each side of the window embrasure, a two-light window at the N end of the NW wall and two single lights, one at the W end of the NW wall and the other at the W end of the SE wall. Externally visible beneath the sill of the window in the SW wall is an earlier sill of a single-light window which was chamfered externally. In the SW wall there are two recesses, both giving access to murder-holes, which probably doubled as wall cupboards. Centrally placed in the NW wall is a fireplace with missing lintel, probably a later insert when the tower house was remodelled in the late 16th/early 17th century. A pointed doorway at the E end of the SE wall gives access to an L-shaped garderobe chamber lit by a single light in the NE wall, the garderobe chute exiting in the NE wall. The second floor rested on a wooden floor supported on a series of corbels on the SE and NW walls and is roofed by a barrel-vault. It was accessed from the mural stairs at the E end of the SE wall and lit by three single-light windows in the SE, SW and NW wall. A doorway at the N end of the NW wall leads into a small inaccessible chamber lit by a single-light window opposite the doorway. Centrally in the NW wall there is collapsed masonry indicating where there may have been a small fireplace utilising the flue from the fireplace at first-floor level. The mural stairs opposite the entrance to the second-floor chamber is lit by a single light with slop-stone beneath the sill. The mural stairs in the E angle rises to a small lobby area to the E end of the NE wall which is protected by a murder-hole. This lobby is lit by a flat-headed single light in the NE wall, with slop-stone beneath the sill. A round-headed doorway, the head of which is chamfered, leads from the NW wall of the lobby, down a flight of stairs, to a garderobe chamber which is lit by a simple slit ope at the N end of the wall. Another round-headed doorway leads from the SW wall of the lobby into the third floor chamber. It is lit by windows with window seats, a two-light cusped ogee-headed window at the S end of the SE wall with slop-stones beneath the sill, a two-light ogee-headed window in the SW wall, a single-light ogee-headed window in each of the NE and NW walls. There is a fireplace, the surround reconstructed in 1944 from concrete, centrally placed in the SE wall. There are three wall-cupboards, two in the NW wall and one in the window embrasure in the NE wall. At third-floor level there is a triple arcade on the SW wall which is centrally supported on cut limestone chambered piers, and a double arcade on the NE wall; both arcades are supporting a mural chamber on the SW and NE wall respectively. The roof was carried on a series of corbels along the NW wall and SE walls and the roof line, with the remains of steps above, is visible on the NE and SW faces of the gable. There is a wall-walk along the SE and NW walls and a flat-headed doorway on the S and W angles gives access to the mural chamber on the SW wall, which is inaccessible. The NE mural chamber is accessed from the third-floor chamber via a narrow mural stair at the E end of the SE wall. This narrow chamber is barrel vaulted and contains a large fireplace with well-cut corbel supports which are chamfered and have broach stops and skewbacks on either side of the collapsed lintel. Immediately N of the fireplace there is a two-light, cusped ogee-headed window. The NW wall of this chamber has been broken out. On the wall-walk in the centre of the SE wall there is a circular chimney stack with a string course towards the base. According to the OS Letters there was also a circular chimney stack on the opposite NW wall (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 2, 180), but this is not apparent and the outer parapet wall on this wall does not survive. At both N and S angles there is a circular bartizan resting on a double corbel on the SW and SE sides with a single chamfered corbel at the angle. There are the remains of a number of gutter-stones at the base of the parapet. This tower house was originally built in the 15th/early 16th century and altered, including re-fenestration, in the late 16th/early 17th century. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 26 August 2011