Ballycuddihy Castle

At a break in slope in a valley, in rolling grassland. The views are fair to good, though somewhat overlooked to the E by high ground. A three-storey rectangular tower house (ext. dims. 7m N-S; 4.8m E-W; wall T 1.04-1.22m) built of roughly coursed limestone rubble with dressed quoins. There is a basal-plinth and slight base-batter (H 1.63m; Wth 0.12m) at the NW angle, otherwise no base-batter. It was entered at ground-floor level through a central pointed doorway in the E wall. The small ground-floor chamber (dims. 4.57m N-S; 2.58m E-W) was lit by two loops, one in the centre of the S wall and one S of centre in the W wall, both blocked. There is a wall cupboard at the S end of the E wall and there are two wall cupboards in the W wall, one at either end of the wall. There is a large embrasure at the E end of the N wall which may have had a loop, now blocked, and a wall cupboard in the E face. There is no stair from the ground floor to first-floor level, presumably it was accessed via a wooden stair/ladder through the wooden floor which was supported on corbels. The stair was in the NE angle of the chamber where there is a flat-headed doorway giving access to a spiral stair which rises in the NE angle of the tower house and gives access to the second floor.

The first floor was lit by a flat-headed single-light window in the centre of the W wall and by a loop in the SW angle. There is a fireplace at the S end of the E wall, the flue of which is carried externally at second-floor level on projecting masonry supported by corbels. There are two wall cupboards, one in the centre of the S wall and one at the N end of the W wall. Above the first-floor and below the pointed vault, there appears to have been a loft, resting on corbels on the N and S walls. Also at first-floor level and accessed from the spiral stair is a garderobe chamber (dims. 2.1m x 0.8m; H 2-2.05m) which runs along the N wall. The garderobe (dims. 0.56m x 0.35m) is at the end of this rectangular chamber and exits from a chute at the W end of the N wall which is now blocked up. The chamber is lit by a loop with slop stone beneath it and there is a small wall cupboard at the rear of the garderobe, the back of which has been broken through.

The second floor was 0lit by a round-headed single-light window in the S wall and by ogee-headed single-lights in the N, E and W walls. The N window has a slop-stone beneath the sill. There is no fireplace which suggests this chamber was probably heated by a brazier. A flat-headed doorway at the N end of the W wall gives access to a stair to the parapet. The stair is covered by a caphouse, with the doorway facing onto the W wall-walk. Only the lower courses of the battlements survive. The wall-walk and roof rested on masonry courses which project internally at second-floor level.

On the exterior, projecting from the E wall, are the coping stones of a steeply pitched gable roof. The coping is built into the wall and the lowest coping stone, on both sides, is incorporated into the quoin stone. There is a lot of ivy at second-floor level, however, where visible, the coping does not continue into second-floor level, where it would have reached its apex at or just above the central E window. A flat-headed doorway has been inserted at first-floor level at the N end of the E wall giving access to this level and onto the spiral stair. The internal stair arrangement at first-floor level appears to have been altered slightly during this phase. Broken out masonry in the external wall face below this doorway is evidence of a stair, indicated on the 25-inch OS map, which was fixed into the wall to give access to this doorway.

Against the S wall there is also the scar of a much later two-storey outbuilding with a shallow pitched roof, the apex of which reached first-floor level. This building, with its internal concrete rendering and concrete floor, was removed c. 1980. There are also footings of a low building which had been added to the N wall and is clearly indicated on the 25-inch OS map. It was noted in the 1980s (OPW files) that an oven and range had been inserted into the ground-floor embrasure in the N wall, now since removed, but disturbed masonry visible in the external N wall of the tower house may indicate where a later flue related to this range was inserted.