Castle in Ruins — Thurlesbeg

In flat unreclaimed grassland with good views in all directions, stream 60m to N and ringfort (TS053-055----) 270m to NE. Land to W and E of fortified house has been reclaimed and reseeded with grass, however, land to N and NNE has been left unreclaimed and is in rough grassland. Mr Fulwar resided in this fortified house in the 17th century, the son of Archbishop Fulwar who died in 1667 (White 1892, 8). In the Civil Survey (1654-6) Redmond Magrath was listed as proprietor in 1640 and the property was described as including a 'Castle & a Bawne with a Dozen Cabbins and a pleasant seat' (Simington 1931, vol. 1, 224). Described in the OS letters as following 'Its south wall remains to a height of about thirty feet [9.8m] high, but even the foundations of the other walls are not traceable so that the extent of the building cannot be ascertained. The wall is built of limestone and five feet six inches in thickness [1.6m]' (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 1, 119 (314)). Mill stream indicated on 1st ed. OS 6-inch map, now filled in, provided water for moat around castle on N and E sides. This mill stream fed a Corn mill and mill pond 360m to NW of castle. The stream may be contemporary with the fortified house and there may have been an earlier mill located on the wet marshy land to N and E of fortified house. Poorly preserved fortified house consists of a rectangular block (ext. dims. 8.5m N-S;16m E-W; wall T 1.7m) with circular corner-towers (ext. diam. 3m) at NE and NW angles only of which only the S and SE angle survives two storeys high. The circular corner towers survive 1.2m high and N wall survives approx. 1.8m high and all of the collapsed rubble is resting on top of this fortified house. No access to interior of fortiified house due to collapsed rubble. At the SW angle of the fortified house are the grass-covered wall-footings (H 0.3m) of a bawn wall (TS053-054001-) which ran out southwards from SW angle of fortified house and then returned westwards for a distance before turning northwards where it ran onto a moat (base Wth 4m; top Wth 5.7m; ext. D 0.5m) which is visible along the N and E sides of the fortified house only. Causeway entrance across moat to N of fortified house along N side of moat (Wth 3m). S wall of fortified house constructed with roughly coursed limestone rubble with no base-batter visible while there is a base-batter on the N wall. Double-splayed window survives in centre of S wall. At first-floor level there was mural chamber (Wth 0.6m) in the SE angle accessed from mural stairs (Wth 0.6m) in S wall. Large single chamfered and rebated limestone jamb from either a large doorway or gateway is visible in the courtyard to W of the fortified house. This has the appearance of a late medieval jambstone from a gateway into a bawn or from the main doorway into the fortified house. Ground plan of rectangular block with two corner towers on N wall suggests that this may have been a plantation castle of 17th-century date with bawn wall and an enclosing outer moat. Good evidence of external wall facing on E face of bawn where it meets the NW angle of the fortified house. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 26 August 2011