Dervotstown Castle — Dervotstown

The terrier of the 1655-9 Down Survey map of Killua parish recorded that 'In Dervotstowne there is a Castle in repaire and some small cabbins' (NLI MS 723-4). A tower house type castle with tall chimneystack belonging to Barnaby Hill, an Irish papist is depicted on the Down Survey map of Killua parish. On the Down Survey map of Delvin barony the castle is depicted as a tower house type structure with small angle tower. Situated on a low natural rise in grassland with good views in all directions. Only the NE angle tower (int. dims. 2.56m x 2.57m) of a tower house survives intact. Present remains consist of a rectangular tower (ext. dims. 5.7m NW-SE; 3.8m NE-SW; wall T 1.2m; max. H c. 10m) built of undressed limestone and surviving three storeys high. The tower was entered through a doorway (Wth 1.37m) located off centre to E in S wall gave access to the ground floor of the angle tower. A broken out doorway at E end of N wall gave access to main chamber of castle now destroyed. The ground floor was lit by a window ope in W end of S wall, no visible window opes in W, N and E walls of angle tower. There are a number of rectangular window opes in the upper floors two over the S doorway & two above the other in the N wall. There is a small rectangular ope with internal splay in the SE wall and a small niche in the NE wall on the ground floor. There are two doorways, one above the other in the upper floors over the NW doorway. Slight external projections at the N & W corners suggest that this was part of a larger structure, and was attached to the NE corner of a tower house. Compiled by: Frank Coyne and Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 16 May 2017