Rathdrum Castle (in ruins) — Rathdrum

On a natural hillock in gently undulating pasture, with land rising to the NE and SW. The Civil Survey (1654-56) lists 'Redmond Mocler of Rathdrom Irish Papist' as the proprietor in 1640 and on his lands there is 'a stump of a Castle the Walls standing' (Simington 1931, vol. 1, 209). A tower house (ext. dims. 11m NE–SW; 8.1m NW–SE; wall T 1.9m) constructed of limestone rubble, roughly coursed with a base-batter (H 3m; Wth 0.25m), of which the ground and first-floor survive. It appears to have rounded quoins, though these are only visible on the N angle as the W angle does not survive, the S angle has been robbed and the E angle is obscured by dense ivy growth. The tower house was entered in the SW wall, which is now missing. There are the remains of a spiral stair in the W angle and a guardroom (H 2.15m; dims. 1.8m x 0.8m) to the S of the entrance lobby which has a small wall cupboard in the NE wall. The lobby itself and the chambers above do not survive. The ground floor (int. dims. 4.47m NE–SW; 4.43m NW–SE) was lit by two windows, a narrow round-headed window in the centre of the SE wall and a now broken out window at the N end of the NE wall, which according to the OSL was also round headed ((O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 1, 68(181)). There is a large wall cupboard towards the W end of the NW wall. The first-floor was entered from the spiral stairs, as evidenced by a door recess at the W end of the NW wall. It rested on a wooden floor supported on corbels on the NW and SE wall and is vaulted over. Much of the vault, which ran NE–SW, has collapsed, however, the vertical recesses for the vault's formwork supports are visible in the NW and SE wall. The first floor appears to have been lit by a window at the N end of the NE wall, though the only evidence is the N side of a straight-sided possible window embrasure. According to the OSL the window at first-floor level was pointed (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 1, 68(181)). There is a garderobe chute at the S end of the SE wall which exits 1.35m above the external ground level. The chute appears to be serving a garderobe at second-floor level. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 28 September 2011