Ballyshanemore Castle

On level ground within Gowran Demesne and c. 400m SSW of the medieval town of Gowran (KK020-060----). The tower house is named Ballyshanemore and Birthistle (1997, 35) suggests that it may have been named after John (in Irish Seán), the sixth Earl of Ormond, who died c. 1477. However, Manning (2006, 71-2), promotes Shane More [mac] Elliot, who is mentioned in a number of Ormond documents from 1432 to 1443 relating to Gowran, as being the more likely candidate. According to Manning (ibid. 72-3), ‘Shane Mór was not the constable of the castle of Gowran, who was listed separately in 1443, but appears to have been an important and trusted tenant and servant of the White Earl in his management of the demesne of the manor. In such a key position he may have been encouraged to develop the settlement, to which he gave his name, and possibly even build the tower house, which could have served as part of the outer defences of Gowran, commanding an important roadway from the south’. Manning (ibid. 73) also suggests that Castle Ellis townland, immediately W of Gowran, could have also derive its name from Shane Mór’s family.

A four-storey tower house (ext. dims. without base-batter 10m N-S; 8.3m E-W; wall T 1.5m) with a mural chamber along the N wall at parapet level. It is built of roughly coursed limestone rubble with cut quoins and has a high, gradually tapering base-batter (H c. 2.5m; Wth c. 0.2m). The coping stones of the steep-pitched roof are visible on the S face of the mural chamber at parapet level, as are projecting steps to the W of the roof, which gave access to a look-out platform above the chamber. This is probably the feature at the top of the castle known locally as the ‘leaba chaol’ (the narrow bed) (Carrigan 1905, vol. 3, 410).

The entrance is through a pointed doorway at the N end of the E wall, within a rectangular recess in the base-batter. The recess accommodated an iron grill or yett. A detailed annotated drawing of the entrance by the Rev. James Graves, dated 1852, records the sockets for the hanging irons to hold the yett in the S jamb, with a spud-hole at the base, and a bolt hole in the N jamb (Manning 2006, 75-6, fig. 4). The entrance lobby is protected overhead by a murder-hole. Opposite the entrance doorway there is a pointed doorway to the ground-floor chamber and on the S side of the entrance lobby there is a pointed doorway leading directly to a mural stair which rises in the E wall. The ground floor is lit by four double-splayed loops, one at the S end of the E wall, one roughly centrally placed in the S wall and two in the W wall. There are two wall-cupboards in the SW angle, one at the end of the S wall and the other at the end of the W wall. There is a large round-arched recess (D 1m) at the W end of the N wall.

The first floor is entered from a lobby at the top of the mural stair at the S end of the E wall, which is protected overhead by a murder-hole. The chamber is lit by two loops, one towards the E end of the N wall and one W of center in the S wall and there is a wall-cupboard at the S end of the W wall.

The mural stair, which is lit by simple narrow loops, turns in the SE angle and continues to rise to roughly mid-way along the S wall. The entrance lobby, which is lit by a loop with slop-stone in the S wall, is again protected overhead by a murder-hole. The second-floor chamber is accessed via a pointed doorway. The second floor rests on a well-preserved stone vault which covers the floor below. There are window seats within the window embrasures. It is lit by a two-light window at the N end of the W wall, the center of the window and mullion are missing but it appears to have been ogee-headed with decorated spandrels. Externally this window is recessed within a chamfered surround, with a hood-moulding with a drop label which tapers to a point. There is a single-light window in the N wall and two single-light windows in the E wall, one either side of a fireplace. Both of the window embrasures in the E wall contain openings to the murder-holes at ground and first-floor level. The fireplace had a sloping canopy which rested on seven joggled voussoirs, now largely missing but depicted in a drawing of 1813 (ibid. 74, 76, fig. 3). The voussoirs were held in place by curving supports embedded in the wall and the jambs are carried on either side by an inverted pyramidal corbel. The chimney flue projects externally and is carried on two corbels, though the chimney itself does not survive. There are three wall-cupboards, one at the N end of the W wall, one towards the E end of the N wall and one at the E end of the S wall. A flat-headed doorway in the S portion of the E wall gives access to a small lobby with a garderobe chamber to the S and a mural stair which rises in the E wall to the N, lit near the bottom of the stair by a loop with slop-stone base. The garderobe is lit by a small loop and the garderobe chute exits lower in the S wall.

The third floor, which was carried on a timber floor, now gone, was entered from the mural stair at the N end of the W wall, lit by a loop oppose the doorway. It is lit by four windows, that in the N wall being the most elaborate and consisting of four lights, two over two, ogee-headed with hollow spandrels, all within an external recess with a hood-moulding with drop labels. The lower mullion is missing. There is a single-light ogee-headed window at the S end of the E wall, a two-light ogee-headed window roughly centrally placed in the S wall and a two-light step-headed window towards the S end of the W wall. There is no fireplace at this level. There is a wall-cupboard towards the N end of the E wall and another towards the W end of the S wall, the later containing the opening to the second-floor murder-hole.

The mural stair turns in the NW angle and rises to the mural chamber at parapet level along the N wall. Within this chamber a flat-headed doorway gives access to the roof space of the tower house and roughly opposite this there is an unusual double cruciform loop with rounded terminals. At the E end of the chamber there is a cruciform loop with square terminals, with a rectangular opening at the base. A flat-headed doorway at the E end of the S wall gives access onto the parapet. At parapet level there was a machicolation protecting the ground-floor entrance but only the two corbel supports survive. Similarly only two corbel supports survive of the machicolation at the W end of the S wall which protected the garderobe exit. Most of the parapet does not survive, only a string-course along the base and some lower courses along the S wall.