Site of Barrettstown Castle — Barrettstown

On a gradual NE-facing slope in gently undulating pasture, with a small limestone quarry located 33m NE of tower house. Stone walls run up to the NE and SE corners, with a post and wire fence to W. In 1593 Thomas Mac Donnogh Ro O'Carran was attainted on high treason and his castle and land in Barretstown granted to George Sherlock who sold it shortly after to Ormond for £80 (COD VI, 53). According to the Civil Survey (1654-6) 'The sd lands hath on it a small castle wanting repaire' which in 1640 was under the ownership of Nicholas Everard of Fethard (Simington 1931, vol. 1, 208). This four-storey tower house (ext. dims. 10m NE-SW; 7.44m NW-SE) is constructed of limestone rubble, roughly coursed, with base-batter (H 3m; Wth 0.3m) and dressed quoins. The battlement level does not survive. A garderobe chute exits 1.43m above ext. ground level in the NE wall. The tower house is entered through a pointed doorway, originally protected by a yett, at the S end of the SW wall, leading into a small lobby area defended by a cross-loop opposite the doorway. A doorway to the NE leads to a second lobby with another doorway to NW giving access to the spiral stairs in the SW angle and a doorway to NE giving access to the main ground-floor chamber. There was a series of vertical mural chambers above the lobby area, each formerly resting on a wooden floor. The first and third-floor mural chambers were entered from the spiral stair. The first-floor mural chamber was lit by a window in the SW wall, the second-floor chamber by an angle-loop in the S angle and a window in the SW wall, and the third-floor chamber by a window in the SE wall. The third-floor chamber has a vaulted roof with good wicker-centring. The main ground-floor chamber is lit by single windows in the NW, NE and SE walls. The NE window is broken out, the other windows are round-headed single lights, and wall cupboards are at the NE end of the NW and SE walls. The first floor is entered through a pointed window from the spiral stairs. It was lit by single windows in the NW and NE wall, both broken out and blocked up, and had a large fireplace in the SE wall which was modified with stone and brick infill to create a smaller fireplace and separate flue to the E. This flue appears to continue below the fireplace level, though there are no traces of an inserted fireplace at ground-floor level. At the S end of this wall there is a small wall cupboard. The first floor was carried on wooden beams supported on two corbels on the NE and SW walls, with corresponding beam-holes for the wall plate. The second floor is entered from the spiral stairs. It is lit by a flat-headed single-light window in the NW wall and an ogee-headed single-light window in the NE wall. There is a large, flat-lintelled fireplace in the SE wall, with some stone and brick infill on the S side to narrow the its width, and a wall cupboard at the S end of the SE wall. A flat-headed doorway in the SW wall accesses the mural chamber above the lobby. The second-floor was carried on wooden beams in similar fashion to the first-floor chamber. Above the second floor there is a loft space which was entered from the floor below. The loft had a wooden floor and is roofed with a pointed vault. The spiral stairs between ground and second-floor level has been broken out, remaining intact from the second floor up but inaccessible. Above the vault the third-floor was lit by a window in each wall, those in the SE and NW faces broken out, but that in the SW face an ogee-headed single light, the NE window a two-light, cusped ogee-headed window. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 26 August 2011 This monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 26/1934).