Tourin Castle — Tourin Demesne

Located on a SE-facing slope at the W edge of the floodplain of the N-S Blackwater River, with the stream c. 230m distant. Probably built after 1600, it was owned by Edmund Roche, who had rented the castle and lands to Edward Gratix, in 1640 (Simington 1942, 12). The tower house was forfeited by the Roches of Fermoy after the 1641 rebellion, when it was conveyed to John Nettles, whose grandson sold the castle and its lands to the Musgrave family in 1780 (O'Connell Redmond 1918, 103). This is a rectangular tower (ext. dims. 11.65m N-S; 8m E-W) of four storeys, with an attic and a modern slate roof, surviving complete with cut-stone quoins and a slight base-batter (H to wall-walk 10.15m). There is no vaulting and all the floors were supported on corbels in the E and W walls. Almost all the embrasures are segmental-arched and show evidence of wicker centering, although many are now covered in plaster. All the dressed stone is limestone and the timber bracers survive in the nib-holes of the antechamber on the second floor. A pointed doorway (Wth 1.93m; H 1.95m) with a yett, at the centre of the N wall, leads to a lobby without a murder-hole but with a guardroom at W entered by a lintelled doorway. The guardroom has a single gun-loop in the W wall. From the lobby a pointed doorway leads to the ground-floor chamber (int. dims. 7m N-S; 5.25m E-W) which has modernised or blocked embrasures in the W and S walls and a blocked fireplace in the E wall. From the lobby a lintelled doorway leads to a newel stairs at the NE angle which rise to the upper floors. A pointed doorway leads to the first-floor chamber which has modernised embrasures in the E, W and S walls, and a lintelled doorway off the stairwell gives access to a vaulted chamber in the N wall. The stairs are lit by a small window in the N wall and a gun loop at the NE angle as they rise to the second floor. A pointed doorway leads to the second-floor chamber which has a two-light rectangular window with a square hood-moulding towards the S end of the E and W walls, and a fireplace with a wooden mantle in the N wall. From the stairs a pointed doorway leads to a room with a slop-stone in the E wall. A lintelled doorway leads from the stairs to a vaulted chamber in the N wall which has a fireplace with a wooden mantle in the S wall. The stairs to the third floor are lit by a small rectangular window in the N wall and a single-light with a hanging-eye in the E wall. The third floor is entered through a pointed doorway and has an ogee-headed window in the S wall, a two-light rectangular window with a square hood-moulding at the S end of the E and W walls, and a fireplace at the N end of the W wall. A lintelled doorway in the N wall leads from the chamber to a small antechamber, and a pointed doorway at the SE corner gives access to a rectangular machicolated structure over the E and S walls. The stairs, lit by a window with a hanging-eye and spudstone, continue to the N wall-walk and lead to the attic through a lintelled doorway in the N gable wall. The parapet has simple crenelations with gun loops and there is a rectangular machicolated structure with six gun loops at the NW angle. A machicolation at the W end of the S wall is non-functional and a look-out over the stairs-housing is now largely destroyed. Tall square chimney stacks rise over the N and E walls. O'Connell-Redmond, G. (1918) The castles of north-east Cork and near its borders. JCHAS 24, 1-6, 62-6, 93-103, 145-51. Simington, R. C. (ed.) (1942) The Civil Survey AD 1654-1656, vi, the County of Waterford. Irish Manuscripts Commission. Dublin. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Waterford' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1999). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Revised by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 26 July 2011