Castle Pierce

On the edge of low-lying, boggy, rough pasture with rock outcrop. The area has been planted with forestry with a roughly square buffer zone (dims. c. 65m²) around the castle. Before forestry the views were poor in all directions. In the 17th century this townland was part of Bruckana (called Brickanagh) townland. The Down survey (1655-6) barony map of Galmoy shows a fairly accurate representation of the fortified house, with a tower with entrance at the E and house attached to the W. The Down Survey parish map of Eirke parish shows a castle annotated 'decayed' in Brickanagh with Peter Archdeacon (aka Pierce Cody), Irish papist, listed as the proprietor before the 1641 Rising. The accompanying terrier also mentions a bawn. According to Carrigan (1905, vol. 2, 284), ‘Tradition affirms that this castle was occupied by Pierce Cody and was named from him, and that it was burned down (whether accidently or not, is not stated), in his absence, by his servants. The burning, if true, must have occurred very shortly before 1655, in which year the Down Survey Map enters Castlepierce as “a decayed castle and bawn” in Pierce Cody’s part of “Bricanagh”’. Pierce Cody took a prominent part in the Rising of 1641, after which his lands were forfeited (OPW topographical files).

A rectangular three-storeys with attic fortified house (int. dims. 7.55m E-W; 5.63m N-S; wall T 1.2m) with cross-gable roof and a five-storey square stair tower projecting out at the SE angle (int. dims. 2.5m E-W; 2.47m N-S), built of roughly-coursed rubble limestone with roughly dressed quoins. There is a bartizan at the NW and SW angle. The W side of the N wall of the stair tower and the S portion of the E wall of the main block are missing. There is a pile of rubble in the interior of the main block and there are two mature elder trees growing in the interior, one at the entrance and one in the main block. The fenestration throughout is very plain, with no external chamfers except at second-floor level. The inner lintel of the window embrasures were wooden, none of which survive. There are wooden floors throughout, supported by corbels on the N and S walls, with corresponding beam-holes in the E and W walls. Some internal render survives, particularly at second-floor level.

The entrance doorway is at ground-floor level in the N wall of the SE tower. It is largely broken out with only the very worn lower E jamb surviving. It is rebated internally and has a double external chamfer. There is the base of a yett-hole in the top of the jamb and a draw-bar hole in the wall immediately to the E. The entrance was protected by a machicolation, only the E side of which survives. The main ground-floor chamber was entered from the stair tower, though the doorway is broken out. In the main block there is a simple loop in each wall at ground-floor level, those in the N and S wall have internally sloping sills.

All the upper floors were entered from the wooden stair in the stair tower, via doorways at the S end of its W wall, only evidenced by the remains of some S jambs. The well stair is also gone but the crude beam-holes survive. It was lit by simple loops in the E and S face. The first-floor chamber is lit by single-light round-headed windows, one at the E end of the N wall, in the W wall and at the W end of the S wall. There is a broken-out fireplace at the W end of the N wall. The second floor has windows in the same position as the first floor, though there is also the N splay of a window embrasure at the N end of the E wall. The second-floor windows were larger and the inner embrasures continue to floor level. The only surviving window at this level is a wide single-light in the W wall with a central glazing-bar hole visible in the lintel. There is a flat-lintelled polished-limestone fireplace at the W end of the N wall, with a chamfered edge which curves at the angles. There is a small wall-cupboard at the W end of the S wall.

At attic level only the S gable survives almost intact, surmounted by a dummy chimney stack. The upper portion of the W gable is missing and only the lower courses of the N gable, with window, survive. The attic was lit by a round-headed window in the W wall, a small loop in the S wall and another one at a higher level at the base of the dummy chimney stack and a loop in the N wall E of the chimney. At parapet level there is a large water-spout projecting from the E end of the N wall and the W of the N wall, immediately E of the angle bartizan. Another water-spout projects from the gully in the cross-gable mid-way along the S wall. The stair tower rises above the main block, with drainage-holes and spouts along the base of the parapet in its E, S and N walls.

The bawn (KK007-001003-) is not visible at ground level.