Knockkelly Castle (in ruins) — Knockkelly

On top of a hill within a large rectangular bawn (TS062-131002-). According to the Civil Survey (Simington 1931, vol. 1, 180) the proprietor in 1640 was ‘Nicholas Everard of Fethard Esqr.’ and ‘The s[ai]d hath on it a Castle & a slate house within a bawne’. A five-storey tower house (ext. dims. c. 10m E-W; c. 12.7m N-S) with a vault over the main third-floor chamber, all other storeys carried on wooden floors. It is built of limestone rubble, roughly coursed with well-cut quoins and has the remains of external harling and a base-batter (H 2-3m; Wth 0.3m). The tower house appears to have been built in the later half of the 15th or early 16th century and was remodelled c. 1600. The original windows are flat, ogee or round-headed, all chamfered externally. The upper floors below the vault are inaccessible. The entrance was in the S wall, it is now completely broken out, as is the entrance lobby arrangement. Much of the damage to the entrance was caused by the erection of a later house against the S wall of the tower house, possibly in the 18th century, the roof scar of which is visible. A large fireplace was inserted in the area of the original doorway at ground level and another smaller fireplace at first-floor level, both feeding into a flue which rises within an inserted chimneybreast in the SE angle of the tower house. The entrance to the tower house was protected by a machicolation at battlement level and internally by a murder-hole in a wooden floor in the mural chamber above the lobby. This mural chamber also has a slop-stone in the S wall. There are four mural chambers above the lobby, all accessed from the spiral stair, except at second-floor level where the chamber is accessed via a round-headed doorway from the main second-floor chamber. The uppermost chamber has a barrel-vaulted roof. There is a small guardroom E of the entrance, now partially blocked off by collapsed inserted masonry, which was lit by a loop in the E wall. The main ground-floor chamber (dims. 7m x 6.24m) was lit by loops in the N, E and W walls, the latter being completely broken out. There are also wall-cupboards, that at the W end of the S end being unusually large. The upper floors were accessed from a spiral stair which rises in the SW angle. The first and second-floor chambers beneath the vault, were lit by a window in the N, E and W wall, the remains of the original jambs of which are visible externally. During the remodelling phase these windows were replaced by two-light mullioned and transomed windows. At first-floor level the E window was repositioned slightly northward to accommodate an inserted fireplace to the S, the flue of which partially utilises an earlier garderobe chute towards the S end of the E wall. The garderobe was probably accessed from a mural passage at second-floor level, entered from the S side of the window embrasure. The garderobe possibly had a double chute as there is another garderobe chamber between third and fourth-floor level which is carried on an arch, visible below the vault at the S end of the main third-floor chamber. Another, small, mural chamber at this level runs along the W wall. The garderobe chute is not visible externally as this area of the wall has a cement render. At second-floor level there are also mural chambers in the N wall accessed from doorways on either side within the N window embrasure, both L-shaped as they extend beyond the NE and NW angle, as evidenced by external loops. There is a fireplace at the N end of the W wall which appears to be original, though the chimney stack for this fireplace was remodelled when the other fireplaces were inserted. At third-floor level there are also mural chambers in the N wall, accessed from the N window embrasure. The third floor has remodelled mullioned and transomed windows in the N and W wall and a fireplace has been inserted beneath the vault in the E wall. The main fourth-floor chamber (dims. 6.7m x 7.39m) appears to have been lit by five windows originally, two in both the E and W wall, now only visible externally, and one in the N wall. The S window in the E wall was blocked up when the flue from a lower fireplace was inserted. The N window in the W wall was blocked when a fireplace was inserted at the W end of the N wall. This fireplace also blocked up a mural chamber which ran along the W end of the N wall, accessed from the N window embrasure; a similar mural chamber survives opposite, running E of the window embrasure. New embrasures were built into the E and W wall for larger windows, now broken out, as is the remodelled window in the N wall. There is a slop-stone in the E wall, at the S end. A vaulted mural chamber was accessed in the S wall. Also in the S wall there is a flat-headed doorway which leads to a steep mural stair which gives access to the E to a mural chamber in the S wall and to the W to a mural passage leading onto the wall-walk. The mural chamber appears to have been vaulted originally but the vault was dismantled during remodelling when a large fireplace, with remains of a finely carved inverted pyramidal jamb, was built up against the N wall of the chamber. This chamber also has a slop-stone in the E wall. At an upper level in this chamber there is a doorway giving access to the wall-walk in the E wall and another broken out doorway in the W wall gives access to a small chamber above the stair. The coping stones of the original roof are visible in the N wall of the fifth-floor mural chamber, with steps following the line of the coping on the E side. There are drainage-holes with water-spouts at wall-walk level along the E and W wall. There is a double chimney stack on the E wall and a single stack on the N and W walls, all with small gables. The larger gable in the N wall has two small windows, one on either side of the stack. The chimney stacks are an unusual design, being five-sided, appearing rectangular internally and diagonal externally. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 2 September 2013