Lismalin Castle (in Ruins) — Lismalin

On top of a low rock outcrop on a N-facing slope of rising ground in an upland area with good extensive views from W through N to E, with higher ground to S and a small stream to W. Remains of a bawn (TS055-065003-) are visible to the E and N of the tower house, but elsewhere the bawn wall no longer survives. The manor was held by the Butlers since the early 14th century. Described in the Civil Survey (1654-6) as a 'good castle with bawne & twelve cabbins' which had been 'lately repaired at the states charge', with Pierce (Butler) Lord Viscount of Ikerryn listed as proprietor in 1640 (Simington 1931, vol. 1, 123). Elsewhere in the survey it is described as 'inhabited with a strong bawne repayred at the states charge' (Simington 1931, vol.1, 101). The OS Letters describe it as a 'square castle measuring twenty eight feet six inches [8.7m] by fifteen feet seven inches [4.85m] on the inside, with walls seven feet two inches [2.2m] thick and about forty feet high [12m]. The doorway was on the north side and constructed, as usual with castles in this district, of cut limestone. It had three floors, all of wood and none supported by a stone arch', (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 1, 152-3). The tower house (ext. dims. 12.85m N-S x 8.65m E-W; wall T 2.1m) which survives to three storeys high, is built of roughly coursed sandstone and limestone rubble, with a base-batter (H 3m) and block and start limestone quoins, which have been robbed out at ground-floor level on the SW angle. 19th-century outhouses are built up against the external N and E faces of the tower house and later farmyard walls run from the centre of the W wall and the SE angle. A later doorway of 18th/19th-century date has been inserted in the centre of the S wall at ground-floor level, while the original doorway in the centre of the N wall is now blocked. It originally led into a destroyed lobby which accessed the spiral stairs in the NE angle and the main ground-floor chamber to S. The chamber was lit by single-light, round-headed windows set in the centre of the W, S and E walls. The S window has been replaced by the later doorway insertion. The W window was constructed with fine punch-dressed stonework, of late 16th/early 17th-century date, and set into a segmental-arched embrasure with evidence of wicker-centring visible on the underside of the embrasure arch. All upper floors were wooden, carried on floor joists set into the thickness of the wall, later replaced by machine cut floor joists of 18th/19th-century date. They are now inaccessible due to the ruined condition of the spiral stairs. A partially destroyed garderobe chute is visible on the internal face of the W wall, near the NW angle of the tower. On the second floor, a chamber in the SW angle of the tower, accessed from the main chamber, has a partially destroyed ventilator visible in the external face. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 26 August 2011