Clomantagh Castle

On a low hill with good views from S-WNW and to the E. The medieval church (KK013-003001-) of Clomantagh is located c. 120m to the S and there is a ringfort (KK013-001----) c. 230m to the NW. Another tower house (KK013-033001-), Tubbrid Castle, is visible c. 1.5km to the SSE. According to Carrigan (1905, vol. 2, 368) it was owned by Pierce Ruadh (d. 1539), Earl of Ormond and was inherited by his son Richard Butler, first Lord Mountgarret. It was subsequently granted to Lt. Arthur St George after Richard, third Lord Mountgarret, forfeited his lands during the Cromwellian regime (ibid.).

A five-storey, rectangular tower house (int. dims. 9.3m N-S x 6.5m E-W), located in the SE angle of an associated bawn (KK013-002002-). It is constructed of roughly coursed limestone rubble with dressed quoins, one of which at the SW angle (facing S) is carved with a sheela-na-gig (KK013-002003-). There is a base-batter. Excavations revealed that the foundations consisted of two to four courses of unhewn limestone boulders (H 0.75m) which formed a plinth (Wth 0.2m) at the base of the tower house (Delany 2000, 140). At parapet level the lower portion of the crenellations are intact, with better preservation at the NW angle and at the top of the spiral stair in the NE angle where there is a lookout platform above the caphouse. This lookout was known locally as ’Mairgread nhee Gearoid’s chair’ after the wife of Pierce Ruadh (Carrigan 1905, vol. 2, 368). The wall-walk was drained via drain holes with projecting waterspouts.

The tower house appears to have remained in habitation over the centuries with some modifications including widening of windows and the insertion of fireplaces taking place in the 19th and 20th centuries. It was re-roofed in the late 20th century and in the late 20th/early 21st century it was leased by the Irish Landmark Trust and refurbished as a holiday rental propriety. During this refurbishment a dendrochronological date of c. 1525 was obtained from an original oak timber in the castle, which supports the contention that it was built by Pierce Ruadh (Delany 2000, 140-41). The coping stones of a high-pitched gabled building are visible projecting from the external E face of the tower house. It would appear that the N wall of this building, which is markedly thick and has a pronounced base-batter, is incorporated in the present 19th-century house, which adjoins the E face (ibid.). A modern extension also abuts the N wall. There is a circular stone-lined well (KK013-002004-) immediately W of the tower house.

The pointed entrance doorway at ground-floor level at the W end of the N wall is protected externally by a machicolation at parapet level. Internally it is protected by a murder-hole in the roof of the entrance lobby and by a cross-loop in the wall opposite the entrance. There is a small L-shaped mural guard-room immediately W of the doorway. The main ground-floor chamber is entered via a pointed doorway. It has been modified to accommodate a kitchen. A broad, deep set embrasure in both the S and W walls indicate the locations of former windows. A fireplace has been inserted at the W end of the S wall and a doorway broken through the N end of the E wall to give access to the later farmhouse.

The upper floors are accessed from a spiral stair which rises at the E end of the entrance lobby. It is lit by a number of flat-headed loops. Between the ground and first floor a pointed doorway gives access to a mural chamber in the E wall which has been modified to serve as a landing for the later house. Further up the stair another pointed doorway leads into the main first-floor chamber. It is lit by a two-light window in the S wall, only the jambs of which survive, and a single-light window, currently a wall cupboard, in the W wall. A fireplace has been inserted midway along the S wall. Between first and second-floor level there is another mural chamber, entered via a flat-headed doorway from the stair, running N-S, probably a garderobe chamber. The garderobe chute, now blocked up, exits N of centre on the W wall.

The main second-floor chamber is entered via a doorway which is protected by an overhead murder-hole. It was lit by a round-headed three-light window in the S wall and a round-headed single-light window in the N wall. A fireplace inserted in the S wall may be utilising the opening and flue of an original fireplace. A flat-headed doorway in the W wall gives access to an L-shaped mural chamber, lit by a single loop. At third-floor level a mural passage, lit by a flat-headed window, leads W from the stair. A flat-headed doorway at the E end of the S wall of this passage gives access to the third-floor. The main chamber has a pointed vaulted roof with surviving wicker-centring. It is lit by a round-headed single-light window at the E end of the S wall within a deep straight-sided embrasure, with a loop set into a splayed embrasure on its W side. Four large wooden beams which carried original floor timbers remain in situ.

The fourth-floor chamber is lit by two-light ogee-headed windows in the S, E and W wall and a single-light window in the N wall. There are wall cupboards at either end of the W wall. Midway along the W wall there is a flat-headed doorway which gives access to a very small mural chamber (dims. 1.03m x 0.75m), in the floor of which there is a rectangular shaft dropping down to an oubliette. On the E side of the window embrasure in the N wall there is a doorway which leads, via a narrow spiral stair, to the wall-walk.