Killaghy Castle — Killaghy

On a slight rise in generally flat terrain, in pasture with good views in all directions. A five-storey tower house (ext. dims. 9.4m N-S; 10.9m E-W; wall T c. 2m) with battlements built of roughly coursed limestone rubble, with a high, slender base-batter (H 4m; Wth at base 0.3m) and well-cut quoins. According to the Civil Survey (1654-56) ‘Upon the sd. Lands stands a castle lately repaired at ye States charge with a bawne, two thatcht houses within the same’, under the proprietorship of ‘James Tobyn of Killaghy Irish Papist’ (Simington 1931, vol. 1, 136) and it also states that the castle was occupied (ibid., 101). There is no visible trace of the bawn (TS063-027003-) or the houses (TS063-027002-) mentioned in the Civil Survey. Following the 1641 Rising the tower house was taken over and garrisoned by Commonwealth troops (Smyth 1985, 133). A two-storey 18th-century house, remodelled in the 19th century, has been built onto the W face of the tower house. The S face of the tower house projects forward slightly from the adjoining house. The exterior of the tower house has been harled with the angles accentuated by a vertical band of fine render. The interior of the tower house has not been accessed. The tower house was entered from a doorway in the W wall into an entrance lobby. From this lobby there is a chamber to the S which is currently occupied by a wooden stairs but which was probably the guardroom originally and there is a chamber to the N which is likely to have contained a spiral-stair. The spiral stair appears to have risen in the NW angle and is surmounted by a cap house at parapet level which was light by a small window in the W wall. There appears to be a mural chamber above the lobby at first and second-floor level. The main ground-floor chamber could be entered via a doorway more or less opposite the main entrance. The ground-floor chamber appears to be quite small and was lit by a window in the S wall which was enlarged in the 19th century, though the inner straight-sided embrasure appears to be original. A fireplace has been inserted into the N wall. The main first-floor appears to have been accessed from a doorway, now blocked, in the NW angle, from the spiral stair. A later doorway appears to have been inserted more centrally in the W wall. There is a large segmental-headed fireplace in the N wall, the arch consisting of voussoirs set on edge. This fireplace has been blocked up and a smaller fireplace inserted. There is a window embrasure in the S wall and as in the floor below and the window was enlarged in the 19th century. At second-floor level the main chamber was entered through a doorway at the W end of the N wall, now blocked up. There is a small fireplace inserted into the flue in the N wall and there is an enlarged window in the S wall and a flat-headed two-light window in the E wall. There appears to be a vault over the second floor. At third-floor level there is an angle-loop at the NE and NW angle with possibly a broken-out gun-loop W of the NE angle-loop. There are also a number of narrow single-light windows. At fourth-floor level there was a well-lit chamber with two-light ogee-headed windows in the N, E and S wall. There are single-light windows in the W wall and W end of the N wall, possibly lighting a mural chamber and the stair. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 18 April 2012