Cullahill Castle

Erected by the MacGillapatricks c. 1425; damaged by the Crowellians in the mid seventeenth century and left uninhabitable (Carrigan 1905 vol. 2, 231-3). Built of roughly coursed limestone, this tower house (dims. 15m x 12.6m; wall T 0.95m) is five storeys high with a wall-walk. Most of N portion is missing, as is the doorway. Mural stairwell in NE angle. There is a N-S barrel vault over the ground floor with evidence of a loft which was accessed from an opening in N wall. Mural passage on first and second floors of S wall, and chambers in SE and SW angles, with remains of wicker-centring in SE ones. Large cut-limestone fireplace on second floor of E wall. The third floor was supported on wall thickness, as was the top floor. Intramural wall-walk and pitched gable on S wall; chimney stack on E wall. Most opes are simple rectangle ones. Carrigan (ibid., 232) refers to a sheela-na-gig (LA035-022002-) on E wall and a draw-well (LA035-022003-) in centre of courtyard. No trace of either visible. A large well preserved seven-sided bawn wall (LA035-022005-) (dims. c. 80m N-S, c. 60m E-W; wall T c. 1.1m), with gun loops at N and E, survives; and an inner defensive wall with angle towers, which is set close to the tower house. It appears to have been destroyed at N and E.