Castle (in ruins) — Mortlestown (cooleagh Par.)

On level ground, in the grounds of Mortlestown House, with good views in all directions. In the Civil Survey (1654-56) ‘John St. John of Mortelstowne Irish Papist’ is listed as the proprietor in 1640 and the tower house is described as ‘a small castle wanting repaire’ (Simington 1931, vol. 1, 176). A four-storey tower house (ext. dims. 8.06m N-S; 9.86m E-W; int. dims. 4.78m N-S; 6.88m E-W; wall T 1.4m) with a fifth-floor mural chamber on the W wall surmounted by a cap-house at the SW angle. The parapet does not survive and a 19th-century bell-cote was built at parapet level mid way along the E face, re-using the head of a two-light ogee window. The tower house is constructed of brown stone and limestone with well-cut punch-dressed quoins. Though there is no base-batter on the E face, there is a slight base-batter on the other faces (H 0.9-1.4m; Wth 0.12-0.16m). The tower house is entered via a pointed doorway at the S end of the E wall, this may have been slightly repositioned at some point as it is unusually set within masonry which projects forward from the E wall and it is not directly beneath the machicolation at parapet level, of which only the supporting corbels survive. The door has a yett-hole on the S side and at the apex. A second doorway was inserted at the W end of the S wall in the 19th/20th century. There is a small high lobby with a murder-hole overhead. A flat-headed doorway opposite the main entrance gives access to the ground-floor chamber which is lit by a loop in the W wall which splays internally and externally and a second window in the N wall which is broken out. From the entrance lobby a straight stair rises in the SE angle, running up the S wall. A flat-headed doorway from this stair gives access to the first-floor vaulted chamber which rested on a wooden floor supported by corbels. It is lit by a loop near the S end of the E wall and the floor of its embrasure gives access to the murder-hole. Unusually there is a small recess (H 1.88m; Wth 0.68m; D 0.95m) built into the vault at the W end of the N wall which contains a garderobe. Continuing the rise up to second-floor level, the stair is defended by a second murder-hole which is accessed from a cupboard in the embrasure of the S window at second-floor level. There is a small lobby area before entering the second-floor chamber. This chamber is lit by four ogee-headed windows, two single-lights in the N and W wall respectively and two two-lights, in the E and S wall respectively. The window embrasure at the W end of the N wall has a recess in the floor for a trapdoor to an oubliette (L 2.1m; Wth 0.85m; H 0.98m). A recess at the N end of the W wall gives access to a small garderobe chamber, the chute of which exits at the W end of the N wall. There was a fireplace in the N wall, the surround of which is broken out. The stair continues as a spiral in the SW angle. From here, via a short lobby, the third floor is accessed. This floor rested on offsets on the N and S wall and beam-holes in the E and W walls. It was lit by two single-light ogee-headed windows, one at the W end of the N wall and one in the E wall. It had a pitched roof, the coping stones of which remain projecting from the W face of the fourth-floor mural chamber on the W wall. This chamber was entered from the spiral stairs and is lit by an ogee-headed single-light window in the N wall and a flat-headed window in the W wall. The top of the stairs is protected by a cap-house (dims. 2.44m N-S) with a doorway giving access onto the S wall of the parapet. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 18 September 2012