Chapter II: Introduction: v

LEGEND OF KILKEA CASTLE xi

ADARE CASTLE 1

ANTRIM CASTLE 9

ARKLOW CASTLE 15

ARTANE CASTLE 18

ATHLONE CASTLE 22

BALLYMOTE CASTLE 27

BALLYSHANNON CASTLE 31

BALLYTEIGUE CASTLE 37

BARBERSTOWN CASTLE 39

BARGY CASTLE 42

BARRYSCOURT CASTLE 45

BIRR CASTLE 48

BLACK CASTLE, WICKLOW 54

BLARNEY CASTLE 57

BUNRATTY CASTLE 65

CARLOW CASTLE 71

CARRICKFERGUS CASTLE 77

CARRICK-ON-SUIR CASTLE 85

CARRIGOGUNNEL CASTLE 90

CASTLE BARNARD 97

CASTLE BORO 101

CASTLE DONOVAN 104

CASTLE KEVIN, COUNTY CORK 107

CASTLE KEVIN, COUNTY WICKLOW 109

CASTLE SALEM 114

CLOGHAN CASTLE 116

CROM CASTLE 121

DOE CASTLE 126

DRIMNAGH CASTLE 133

DUBLIN CASTLE 137

DUNDANIEL CASTLE 142

DUNDRUM CASTLE, COUNTY DOWN 148

DUNDRUM CASTLE, COUNTY DUBLIN 152

DUNLUCE CASTLE 157

DUNSOGHLY CASTLE 165

ENNISCORTHY CASTLE 168

ENNISKILLEN CASTLE 172

FERNS CASTLE 177

FERRYCARRIG AND SHANA COURT CASTLES 182

GEASHILL CASTLE 185

GLENARM CASTLE 191

GLIN CASTLE 193

GREENCASTLE, COUNTY DONEGAL 198

GREENCASTLE, COUNTY DOWN 202

HOWTH CASTLE 209

KILBARRON CASTLE 214

KILBRITTAIN CASTLE 217

KILKEA CASTLE 220

KILKENNY CASTLE 228

KILLIANE CASTLE 235

KILLYLEAGH CASTLE 239

KING JOHN’S CASTLE, CARLINGFORD 244

KING JOHN’S CASTLE, LIMERICK 250

LEA CASTLE 257

LEAP CASTLE 264

LEIXLIP CASTLE 272

LISMORE CASTLE 280

LOHORT CASTLE 285

LOUGH CUTRA CASTLE 287

MACROOM CASTLE 289

MALAHIDE CASTLE 292

MALLOW CASTLE 297

MAYNOOTH CASTLE 305

MONGEVLIN CASTLE 311

MONKSTOWN CASTLE, COUNTY CORK 313

PORTUMNA CASTLE 316

ROSCOMMON CASTLE 318

ROSS CASTLE 325

ROSSCLOGHER CASTLE 330

SHANE’S CASTLE 336

SWORDS CASTLE 344

TILLYRA CASTLE 350

TIMON CASTLE 351

TRALEE CASTLE 353

TRIM CASTLE 359

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

ADARE CASTLE _Frontispiece_

ANTRIM CASTLE 8

BIRR CASTLE 49

BLACK CASTLE, WICKLOW 55

BLARNEY CASTLE 59

BUNRATTY CASTLE 64

CARLOW CASTLE 72

CARRICKFERGUS CASTLE 79

CARRICK-ON-SUIR CASTLE 84

CARRIGOGUNNEL CASTLE 91

CASTLE DONOVAN 105

CROM CASTLE 120

DRIMNAGH CASTLE 132

DUBLIN CASTLE 136

DUNDRUM CASTLE, COUNTY DOWN 149

DUNLUCE CASTLE 156

DUNSOGHLY CASTLE 164

ENNISKILLEN CASTLE 173

GLENARM CASTLE 190

GREENCASTLE, COUNTY DONEGAL 199

GREENCASTLE, COUNTY DOWN 203

HOWTH CASTLE 208

KILBARRON CASTLE 215

KILKEA CASTLE 221

KILKENNY CASTLE 229

KILLYLEAGH CASTLE 238

KING JOHN’S CASTLE, CARLINGFORD 245

KING JOHN’S CASTLE, LIMERICK 251

LEA CASTLE (INTERIOR) 258

LEA CASTLE (EXTERIOR) 262

LEAP CASTLE 265

LEIXLIP CASTLE 273

LISMORE CASTLE 282

MALLOW CASTLE 298

MAYNOOTH CASTLE 304

ROSS CASTLE 324

SHANE’S CASTLE 337

SWORDS CASTLE 345

TRIM CASTLE 361

THE LEGEND OF KILKEA CASTLE.

It is seven years since they last awoke
From their death-like sleep in Mullaghmast,
And the ghostly troop, with its snow-white horse,
On the Curragh plain to Kilkea rode past.
For the Lord of Kildare goes forth to-night,
And has left his rest in the lonely rath.
Oh, roughen the road for the silver shoes,
That they wear full soon on his homeward path.

So thus to his own he may come again,
With a trumpet blast and his warriors bold,
And the spell that was by his lady cast
Will pass away as a tale once told.
For dearly she loved her noble lord,
And she wished that no secret from her he kept,
So she longed to know why in chamber small
He watched and toiled while the household slept.

But the Wizard Earl would not tell to her
The secret dark of his vaulted cell,
“For fear,” he said, “in the human frame,
Lets loose the power of furthest hell.”
But she feared for naught save his waning love,
And at length to her wish he bent an ear,
So flood, and serpent, and ghost gave place,
For the lady’s heart had shown no fear.

Then her lord to a bird was soon transformed,
That rested its wing on her shoulder fair;
But the lady screamed and swooned away
When a cat sprang forth from the empty air.
For a woman must fear for the one she loves,
And a woman’s heart will break in twain,
When she knows that her hand has struck the blow
To the man she had died to save from pain.

And thus the Earl must sleep as dead
Till the silver shoes of his steed are worn,
By which every seven years, they say,
To Kilkea and back to the rath he’s born.
And swiftly they pass, that phantom band,
With the Earl on his charger gleaming white,
So we think ’tis the shade of a cloud goes by,
With a shifting beam of the moon’s pale light.
PEERS HERVEY.

_ADARE CASTLE_

“Peaceful it stands, the mighty pile
By many a heart’s blood once defended,
Yet silent now as cloistered aisle,
Where rung the sounds of banquet splendid.”

GERALD GRIFFIN.

This name is a corruption of Athdare, or Ath-daar, signifying “The ford of oaks.” The present village is situated on the west bank of the River Maig, nine miles south-south-west of Limerick.

Desmond Castle, on the east bank, commands the river pass, and near the northern entrance to the castle were formerly the remains of a gateway and wall, traditionally supposed to have belonged to the ancient town of Adare.

The ruins of the fortress are extensive. They consist of an outer and inner ward, separated by a moat, which in former times was crossed by a drawbridge.

There are three entrances to the outer ward, the chief being a square gate tower in the west wall which was defended by a portcullis. There is another entrance on the north, as well as a doorway opening on the river.

The chief buildings are situated near the water’s edge. They consist of the great hall which is 75 feet long by 37 feet in breadth. It is lighted by three windows of rough masonry in its south wall and by one on the west, with fifteenth-century “ogee” heads inserted in the older workmanship.

The doorway on the east opens to the river. The chief entrance and porch were on the north side. The base of one of the sandstone jambs remains, showing it to have been of thirteenth century date. The walls are 3 feet thick, and the roof, which had a very high gable, was supported by four pillars.

At the eastern end are the buttery and smaller offices, while separated from them by a passage is the ruined kitchen (45 feet by 19 feet), which contains the remains of an oven and also a small well of river water. A curtain wall running west, connects these building with a fine oblong, two-storey structure, 56 feet by 31 feet, which is remarkable, inasmuch as the walls of the top storey are thicker than those below, the extra width being supported by projecting stones. The top room, which has loops splayed for archery, was reached by an exterior stone stair. The floor was supported on beams, and the lower room seems to have been used as a stable.

Adjoining the building is a small square tower, which projects into the river that flows under it through an archway in the basement. A wall connects this tower with the gateway.

The inner ward is now reached by a small wooden bridge. The gate tower is connected with the S.E. angle of the keep by a thick curved curtain with an embrasured and looped parapet. A turret protected the juncture of the outer and inner walls. A semicircular tower also projects from the boundary wall on the left of the inner court. It was loopholed, and divided into two storeys.

The keep, which is in the inner court, is about 40 feet square and 67 feet high. Only the north wall and the portions adjoining it remain at their original height. The side next the river is entirely broken down, tradition saying it was destroyed with cannon in Cromwell’s time from the opposite hill. The angles of the remaining wall are crowned with turrets.

The doorway leading to the vaults being of later date than the rest it is supposed they were of more recent insertion. One of the dungeons seems to have been used as a prison. It is lighted by a loop of peculiar construction.

A staircase leads to the chief apartments, and a well of river water is within the walls. The height of the keep seems to have had a third added to it after its original construction as is shown by the old weather-tabling of the roof. The present building was divided into three storeys above the ground floor, which was vaulted. The stairway was in the thickness of the west wall. Small cells occupy the projecting portions at the angles.

From the objects that have been found in the moat which surrounds the keep, it has been thought likely that it occupies the site of a rath, as some of the relics are of much anterior date to the Norman Conquest. The fortress is supposed to have been formerly a stronghold of the O’Donovans until they were dispossessed by the invaders.

The architecture of one of the windows seems to be that in vogue during the close of the twelfth century.

Lenihan states that Adare was famous for its castle and church in the reign of Henry II.

Geoffrey de Mariscis, Justiciary of Ireland, was granted permission to hold a fair in his manor of Adare in 1226, but according to the Spanish historian, Lopez, it had passed into the hands of the “Earls” of Kildare in 1227, when (still according to him) the Earl of March came from Scotland to Adare on shipping business, and the “Earls” of Kildare, not deeming the accommodation at the inn fit for his rank, insisted that he should come to their castle. During the visit he spoke in such praise of the Trinitarian order that the Earl’s father said he would found a priory at Adare. The story is probably inaccurate. In the first place the Earldom of Kildare was not created until 1316, and Lopez speaks of “Earls” in the plural. It is also hard to imagine what shipping business could have been transacted in an inland town. Yet no doubt there is some foundation for the record, as in 1279, 1315, and 1464 other abbeys were founded at Adare by the Kildare Geraldines.

In 1290 the manor of Adare was in the possession of Maurice FitzGerald, 5th Baron of Offaly, and his wife, Lady Agnes de Valence, cousin of the King. Their claim being disputed, a charter was issued in 1299 confirming the grant.

The castle was rebuilt in 1326 by the 2nd Earl of Kildare.

Edward III. granted the lands of Adare to the Earl’s stepfather, Sir John Darcy, during the Earl’s minority in 1329, and it was probably at this time that the inquisition was held in the report of which we find the first authenticated mention of the castle. It is described as having a hall, a chapel with stone walls and covered with thatch, a tower covered with planks, a kitchen covered with slates, and a chamber near the stone part covered with thatch.

Turlough O’Brien burned it sometime during the fifteenth century.

The estate was forfeited by Gerald, 8th Earl of Kildare, for his adherence to the cause of Perkin Warbeck, but it was shortly afterwards restored.

When the 9th Earl of Kildare was summoned to London to answer the charge of allowing the Earl of Desmond to evade arrest, it is likely that he set out from Adare, as he was in that part of the country. It was during this trial in 1526 that Cardinal Wolsey cried out, “The Earl, nay, the King of Kildare--for, when you are disposed, you reign more like than rule the land.”

Upon the confiscation of the estate after the rebellion of “The Silken Thomas,” in 1536, the Earl of Desmond became possessed of Adare, which he leased the following year from the Crown. He seems to have done so with the intention of restoring the lands to his kinsman, the young Gerald, then in hiding from the Government.

The castle remained in the Earl of Desmond’s possession (with intermissions) until his death in 1583, when it reverted to the Kildare branch of the Geraldines. His name still clings to the ruins, no doubt because of the stormy scenes that occurred at Adare during his short ownership.

Here in 1570 the celebrated Leverus, Bishop of Kildare, sought shelter with the Earl of Desmond. He had been tutor to the young heir to the Earldom of Kildare, when a price was set upon his head after the rebellion of the Lord Thomas. Leverus had saved his pupil, who was ill with smallpox, by putting him in a basket, wrapped in blankets, and taking him from Kildare to Thomond.

In 1578 the castle was taken by Sir Nicholas Malby after a siege of eleven days, and garrisoned by English under Captain Carew.

Sir John Desmond, the Earl’s brother, shortly afterwards assaulted it in vain. The following year saw continual warfare round the town of Adare between the two parties, and a garrison of English was placed there by the Lord Deputy, who was accompanied by the Earl of Kildare.

Desmond made every effort to recover the castle in 1580. He resorted to several stratagems, one of which was to send a beautiful young woman to the constable, by whose means he hoped the castle might be betrayed. But upon hearing from whence she came, the officer tied a stone round her neck and threw her into the river.

The following year, however, Colonel Zouch, having disbanded part of his forces, the Earl gained possession of the castle, and put the garrison to the sword. Fresh forces arriving from Cork, Zouch marched on Adare, only to find it deserted; but he pursued the Irish to Lisconnel, where he defeated them in an engagement.

Captain Mynce was recommended as custodian in 1585, and in 1598 Mr. Marshal’s castles of Bruff and Adare were reported to have been taken.

In 1600 the Sugan Earl of Desmond occupied Adare, but upon the approach of Sir George Carew, in July, the Irish burnt the castle and fled. He reports it as “a manor-house belonging to the Earls of Kildare, wholly ruined by Pierce Lacy.”

This Lacy was one of the Earl of Desmond’s supporters.

Insurgents seized the stronghold in 1641, but were driven out by the Earl of Castlehaven, and the castle is said to have been dismantled in 1657 by Cromwell’s orders.

The lands remained in the possession of the Earls of Kildare until 1721, when they were purchased by the Quin family, now represented by the Earl of Dunraven.

AUTHORITIES CONSULTED.

J. Dowd, “The County of Limerick.”
The Countess and Earl of Dunraven, “Memorials of Adare.”
Marquis of Kildare, “The Earls of Kildare.”
M. Lenihan, “Limerick: Its History and Antiquities.”
J. Ferrar, “History of Limerick.”
Parliamentary Gazetteer.
Calendar of State Documents.
Calendar of Carew MSS.

_ANTRIM CASTLE_

“Brown in the rust of time--it stands sublime
With overhanging battlements and towers,
And works of old defence--a massy pile,
And the broad river winds around its base
In bright, unruffled course.”

Antrim town is situated in the county of the same name, on the right bank of Six-Mile-Water just before it enters Lough Neagh, a little more than thirteen miles north-west of Belfast.

The castle, sometimes erroneously called Massereene Castle, was erected in the reign of James I. by Sir Hugh Clotworthy, a gentleman of Somersetshire.

Hugh and Lewis Clotworthy were amongst those who accompanied the Earl of Essex in his expedition to Ulster in 1573, and in 1603 Captain Hugh Clotworthy was doing garrison duty at Carrickfergus under Sir Arthur Chichester. In 1605 he received a grant of the confiscated lands of “Massarine,” and erected a residence on the site of the present building. This consisted of a moated courtyard flanked by towers.

Shortly afterwards he was knighted, and married the beautiful Marion Langford “of the flowing tresses.”

In 1610 Sir Hugh Clotworthy commenced to erect a castle according to the undertaking of the grant, and it was completed in three years. It consisted of a quadrangular pile, three storeys in height, which enclosed a small courtyard, and was flanked at the angles by square towers. The walls measured 6 feet in thickness. A short flight of granite steps led to the entrance hall, which contained a great open fireplace. On the right of the hall was the “buttery,” where at about 3 feet from the floor was a small square door through which food was distributed to the poor. The townspeople had the privilege of passing through the hall by the buttery to a pathway leading to the lake.

The river protected the castle on the west, while on the other sides it was surrounded by a moat. The “Mount” to the east of the castle was furnished with ordnance. Two bastions commanded respectively the town on the south and the lake on the north. The whole fortress covered more than five acres of ground.

Extensive alterations were made in the castle in 1813 by Chichester, fourth Earl of Massereene. At present it consists of a square embattled building of three storeys with a long wing at the same elevation running northward, flanked by two castellated towers near the end. At its extremity rises a very high tower in Italian style, which gives a most picturesque appearance to the stables when viewed from the lough.

The grand entrance hall is square, and the wall which once divided it from the centre courtyard has been replaced by oak pillars leading to an inner vestibule and staircase which occupies the site of the former open space. From this a passage extends the whole length of the castle to the Italian tower. The oak room is a magnificent apartment, wainscotted in dark Irish oak, relieved with lighter shades and exquisitely carved. The panels are painted with armorial bearings. There is a beautiful carved chimney-piece at the lower end of the apartment set with the grate in one frame. Upon touching a secret spring this all swings out and discloses a recess large enough to hide in. The furniture of the room is also Irish oak. Here is preserved the “Speaker’s Chair” of the Irish House of Commons.

The drawing-room and library are both very handsome rooms, and with the oak room, breakfast-room, parlour, and dining-room, form a splendid suite of rooms, opening one off the other. There is a very valuable collection of family portraits in the castle.

The Italian tower contains the chapel, record-room, and a small study. The first of these is in Gothic style and beautifully proportioned. Among the treasures to be seen here are Cranmer’s New Testament and Queen Mary’s Bible.

Over the front entrance is a stone screen slightly raised from the wall and ending in a pointed arch under the parapet wall. It is about 8 feet in width, and is handsomely sculptured with arms, mottoes, and events connected with the castle and its owners. At the top is a carved head representing Charles I., supposed to have been placed there by the first Viscount when he added to the fortress in 1662. Lower down are the arms of the founder and his wife, with the date of erection (1613), &c. Immediately over the hall door is a carved shell supported by mermaids, which represents the Skeffyngton crest.

The two ancient bastions have been formed into terrace gardens, and the grounds of the whole castle are most beautifully laid out. A splendid view is obtained from the old “Mount,” the summit of which is reached by a winding path.

The demesne is entered from the town through a castellated entrance, surmounted by a turretted warder’s lodge, which upon state occasions in modern times has been sentinelled with warders garbed in antique costume, battle-axe in hand.

Near the gatehouse upon the angle of the southern bastion is the carved stone figure of “Lady Marion’s Wolfdog,” representing that splendid Irish breed now extinct. At one time this statue surmounted a turret of the castle, where the great animal appeared to be keeping a “look out” over the lough. Local superstition said that it had appeared there without human agency on the night after the incident occurred with which the legend connects it, and that as long as it keeps watch over the castle and grounds so long will the race of Lady Marion Clotworthy continue to live and thrive.

The story is as follows:--The lovely bride of Sir Hugh Clotworthy wandered one day in his absence outside the bawn walls along the shores of Lough Neagh. Hearing behind her a low growl, she turned round to find a wolf preparing to spring. In her terror she fell to the ground, and with the force of the animal’s leap he passed beyond her. Before he had time to return to his victim a large wolf-hound had seized him in mortal combat. The lady fainted at the sight, and when she recovered consciousness the dog was licking her hands, while the wolf lay dead. She bound up the noble animal’s wounds, and he followed her home, being her constant companion for many a day, until he suddenly disappeared and no trace of him could be found.

Shortly after this the castle was built, and one wild, stormy night the deep baying of a wolf-hound was heard passing round and round the walls of the fortress. The warders, scared by the unusual sound, kindled the beacon on the mount, and by its light discovered a band of natives making preparation for an attack. A few shots dispersed them, but before they left a howl of pain was heard near the entrance gate, where a few flattened bullets were found the next morning. Then upon the castle tower the affrighted warders perceived the stone figure of the dog.

It is probable that Sir Hugh had the figure carved to please his lady, and after the attack considered its mysterious appearance on the fortress the best protection against a superstitious enemy, who had most likely destroyed the beautiful original, which had come from the Abbey of Massarine to warn its former kind friend of danger.

Sir Hugh Clotworthy was succeeded by his son, Sir John, afterwards first Viscount Massereene. He sat in both the Irish and English Houses of Commons, and was one of Stafford’s chief accusers. He was in London when the rebellion of 1641 broke out. The insurrection was in part prevented by a retainer of his, one Owen O’Conally, called “the great informer.”

Sir John’s brother, James, secured the castle in his absence from attack, and the owner returned to it at the end of the year, and took command of the forces in the district. He was imprisoned in 1647 for three years for censuring (with other Members of Parliament) the seizing of the King. During this time his mother, the Lady Marion, occupied the castle. O’Conally commanded Sir John’s regiment in his absence, and in 1649 it was joined to General Monk’s forces. Oliver Cromwell made O’Conally commander of the regiment then at Antrim Castle, and Monro marched against it and killed its leader, but the castle still remained in possession of the troops.

Sir John was raised to the peerage by Charles II. in 1660 as Viscount Massereene. He had no son, and was succeeded in the title and estates by his son-in-law, Sir John Skeffyngton, and henceforward his surname was added to the family name of Clotworthy.

James II. conferred several honourable appointments on him, nevertheless the “Antrim Association” was formed in the castle upon the beginning of the revolution, and the Viscount’s eldest son, Colonel Clotworthy Skeffyngton, was appointed Commander-in-Chief.

The Jacobite General, Hamilton, pushed on to Antrim after his success at Dromore, and Lord Massereene fled from the castle at his approach. The family plate, valued at £3,000, which was hidden before the family left, was shown to the newcomers by a servant, and was seized by them.

Colonel Gordon O’Neill, son of the great Sir Phelim, occupied the fortress in 1688-89, but Lord Massereene recovered his property when William came to the throne.

His grandson was created an earl in 1756, but this title expired in 1816, when Harriet Viscountess of Massereene succeeded to the estates, and through her they passed to the present Viscount.

The last time that the castle figured in history was during the battle of Antrim in 1798. The yeomanry bravely held the castle gardens against all comers, while the great gun of the mount, “Roaring Tatty,” was drawn from its position and fired on the town. One, Ezekiel Vance, gave the signal to the military outside the town to advance by waving a woman’s red cloak from one of the towers of the fortress.

The present Lord Massereene is the 11th Viscount.

AUTHORITIES CONSULTED.