Castle (in ruins) — Cloghabreedy

On a S-facing slope below the crest of a limestone ridge running E-W. The remains of a bawn wall (TS075-030002-) are to the SE and low-lying wet ground at the base of the slope to S. According to the Civil Survey (1654-6) the land was owned in 1640 by 'John Butler of Cloghbrydy Irish Papist' and on the land stood 'a Bawne a thatcht house with severall Cottages' (Simington 1931, vol. 1, 230). In the Ormond Deeds of 1561 Theobald Butler is mentioned in relation to 'Cloghevrydy' (Curtis 1941, vol. 5, 121). It is interesting that the Civil Survey makes no reference to the tower house within the bawn. The OS Letters describe the remains as consisting of the N wall, 'it is forty feet [12m] high and five feet [1.5m] thick' (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 1, 38). As in the 1840s, only a length of the N wall survives up to third-floor level, with an internal partition wall towards the E end of the wall. It is built of limestone rubble, randomly coursed with no base-batter. At ground-floor level there are no features visible except the remains of a largely collapsed, arched recess at the E end of the wall. There are the remains of a substantial wall slot over the arched recess at the E end of wall. The first floor or loft was vaulted. A single-light window is contained within the springing vault on the N wall. The second floor appears to have been entered through a doorway in the W wall, evidenced by the partial survival of a door recess at the W end of the N wall. A similarly positioned recess survives at third-floor level, suggesting that a spiral stairs was contained within the NW angle at these levels. A flat-headed single-light window survives at second-floor level within a segmental-headed embrasure. At third-floor level there are the partial remains of a window embrasure at the E end of the surviving wall. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 07 April 2014