Fethard Castle — Grange (shelburne By., Fethard Ed)

Traditionally ascribed to the Suttons, whose principal residence was Ballykeerogemore (WX039- 024001-), the castle of Fethard was probably built by the Bishop of Ferns in the 15th century as a summer residence. The manor had been settled on the bishop in 1228-32 by the monks of Christchurch, in Canterbury, in settlement of other claims. The bishop may have made Fethard his summer residence as the castle is designed as two discrete households, which he may have shared with the rector. Thomas Denne, who was bishop from 1363-1400, may have moved the diocesan centre away from Ferns to avoid the Gaelic resurgence, and the castle might date to this episcopate (Colfer 2002, 219). The bishop lived at Fetherd throughout the 16th century (Grattan Flood 1915, ix, x). Cahair McArt of Macmurroughs Island (WX029-007----) attacked Fethard in 1532 with the help of John Purcell, the Bishop, and plundered 20 of the inhabitants. Two years later Cahir drove off 115 cattle, including some belonging to the bishop, which His Lordship subsequently and secretly recovered (Hore 1900-11. vol. 4, 322-3; Colfer 2004, 80). Alexander Devereux, the last abbot of Dunbrody (WX039-030001-), progressed to the office of bishop (1539-66) and he, together with his nephew and successor, John (1566-78), continued a policy of alienating church property, particularly to their relatives. However, Thomas Ram, Protestant bishop of Ferns and Leighlin (c. 1605-34) recovered Fethard and other property (Hore 1900-11, vol. 6, 222-3; 257). In 1634 Bishop Ram bestowed the manor on Sir Nicholas Loftus, the son of Sir Dudley Loftus of Kilcloggan (WX049-004001-), in exchange for other property (Jeffrey 1979, 148-9). In 1641, the castle was occupied by Catholic rebels under Capt. James Downes. It returned to the Loftus family and was occupied into the 20th century, although it was much altered in the 18th and 19th centuries. It has been acquired by Wexford County Council and is undergoing a conservation programme under the direction of B. Murtagh, but the interior is, and will be, completely inaccessible. (Hore 1900-11, vol. 4, 307-42) The castle is a complex L-shaped structure, which was built as a unit with a circular tower at the SW angle. The main structure is an E-W block, with a gatehouse at its E end that predates the castle. A wing extends N from the W end of the main structure. There are three discrete, and originally mutually inaccessible, units in the castle, consisting of the vaulted ground floor entered by a doorway on the S side, the first and second floors of the E wing, and the N wing. The last two share a doorway in the N wall of the E structure and access to the attic over the E wing, but the stairs rising to the W of the entrance doorway lead only to the first floor of the N wing. The vaulted ground floor (int. dims 13.6m E-W; 3.6-4.2m N-S) of the E structure has a blocked entrance, protected by a murder-hole, towards the W end of the S wall. In addition there are two inserted or enlarged windows and an inserted doorway in the S wall, and an inserted window in the W wall. The N wing has a N-S barrel-vault, which creates a groin-vault at the S end with the vault of the E wing, although the N wall of the E wing cuts off the N wing. Each of the long walls of the N wing has three embrasures with blocked or secondary windows. An original doorway on the N wall of the E wing, protected by machicolation, gives access to two mural stairs which rise to the W and the E, the latter turning S through a pointed doorway and accessing a first floor hall (int. dims 12m E-W; 4.7m N-S) in the main structure from the E through a destroyed N-S passage and doorway. The other stairs leads directly to the attic over the W end of the hall and to the first floor of the N wing. The passage in the E wall of the hall ends in a garderobe, and it also provided access to the first floor over the vault of the gatehouse (ext. dims 6.65m N-S; 5.3m E-W), but the walls between the passage and both the hall and the gatehouse is largely removed. The gatehouse passage (int. Wth 2.95m) is vaulted and the entrance (Wth 2.34m) has hinge-stones for a drawbridge at S, but no other elaborate defences. At the N end a passage has been broken into the ground floor of the E wing of the castle at a point where there was a cupboard in the castle’s N wall, but the buildings are not bonded and the gatehouse walls have a slight batter, which the walls of the E wing abut. The first floor of the gatehouse has window embrasures in the N, E (2) and S walls that were destroyed, blocked, or widened. The remnants of a stairs in the W wall rises northwards to the second floor that has embrasures in the N, E and S walls that were also inserted or widened. There is a chimney in the NE angle and a cavity at the S end of the W wall, which may indicated the inclusion of wood or the construction of a hidden safe. From the hall a stairs against its N wall also rises to the second floor of the gatehouse. The string-course for the wall-walk survives over the second floor, but nothing else. At the SW angle of the hall are two lintelled doorways leading to an alcove commanding the murder-hole and to the SW tower which has three rectangular lights in Old Red Sandstone and a plain groin-vaulted ceiling. There is an oubliette, or hidden chamber, below in the tower. In 1569 a deposition described how the same John Purcell, Bishop of Ferns (1519-39), imprisoned the Dean, Thomas Hay, in ‘God’s Black Pit’, to gain possession of the Papal Bull appointing Hay (Hore 1900-11, vo. 4, 325). The S wall of the hall has four inserted or expanded rectangular windows, one with an original two-light cusped ogee-headed window-head surviving. There is one enlarged window on the N wall of the hall beside a magnificent lintelled fireplace in granite, and just E of this a stairs rises to the largely destroyed second floor of the gatehouse. There are two lintelled doorways at the NW angle of the hall, that on the N wall once led into a garderobe, whose chute is broken out internally on the ground floor, but the garderobe is otherwise undetectable as the lobby here now leads through an inserted doorway to the first floor of the N wing. The doorway in the W wall of the hall leads to a mural stairs rising southwards in the W wall to the second floor over the hall, but this storey is limited to the W end of the hall as evident from the corbels supporting the floor and its E wall, supported on an arch over the hall. The second floor over the hall has a rectangular light in the W wall and a cusped ogee-headed light in the S wall. A doorway leads to the wall-walk on the N wall of the E wing. From the entrance doorway to the second floor a passage leads to the second floor of the circular tower, which has two ogee-headed windows in Old Red Sandstone, and a rectangular window, while its wooden ceiling would be supported by six corbels. This passage also leads to a newel stairs that rises to the third floor where a lintelled doorway accesses the chamber in the tower. This circular room has three ogee-headed windows in Dundry, and its corbelled ceiling has a plain groin-vault. At the third floor lintelled doorways also access the attic, and the now destroyed wall-walk on the W wall. The newel stairs continues to the destroyed battlements of the circular tower (H 15m) that are supported on corbels projecting E-S-N. A bellcote over the stairs housing is probably not original. The long stairs rising westwards from the main entrance doorway in the N wall of the E wing gives access through a pointed doorway to the first floor (int. dims 8m N-S; 4.8m E-W) of the N wing, which has three embrasures in the W wall, the most southerly of which has an ogee-headed window, the central one is blocked and the N one is destroyed, as is much of the N wall. There is evidence that the N wall is the S wall of a separate and earlier building which the N wing abuts. The E wall has three modernised embrasures