Dunamase Castle

National Monument No. 615. Known as Dun Masc, the fort of Masc, from Masg, son of Augen Urgruidh, 4th son of Sedha Sithbhaic King of Leinster. It was the stronghold of the O'Mores, Kings of Leix. In 1170 Diarmait MacMurchada gave it to Strongbow, as part of his daughter Aoife's dower and it passed to Roger de Mortimer inthe partition of Leinster in 1247. In 1609 it was granted to Donat O'Brien, earl of Thomond. In 1641 it was taken by Sir Charles Coote but it was recaptured by Eoin Rua O'Neill in 1646. It was dismantled by the Cromwellian generals Hewson and Reynolds in 1650. Sir John Parnell constructed banqueting halls and other buildings here in 1795 (O'Leary 1909-11, 161).

Leask states that the castle was built c.1250 by William de Braose, however he had been dead since 1247, when the Marshall lordship was partitioned (Bradley et. al. 1986, 25). An inquisition of De Mortimers lands in 1323 found that the castle had been burned by the Irish, and in 1342, on the death of Laoighseach O Mordha it was recorded that he had destroyed the castrum nobile de Dunmaske and usurped De Mortimers power (O'Leary 1909-11, 165). Dunamase castle is specifically mentioned in the 1538 submission of Piers Mac Maolsheachlainn O Mordha which he made as part of the policy of surrender and regrant (Bradley et. al. 1986, 25). The castle is co-extensive with the rock outcrop and it consists of a Keep with an inner ward, a middle ward with a sallyport in SE side of the curtain wall and a twin-towered gatehouse, an outer ward with gatehouse, and an external traingular shaped bailey (int. dims. 80m by 60m). The keep appears to be the earliest building dating from c. 1220 and may be as early as 1180 (Bradley et. al. 1986, 25). The castle appears to have developed in a number of stages. The initial defences consisted of the rectangular Keep (ext. dims. 19.8m E-W; 21.3m N-S) and the inner ward (wall T 0.9m; H 2.2m) which fortified the summit of the rock. On the 1790 plan of Dunamase Castle drawn by Ledwich, the inner ward was protected by three mural towers of which today only the foundations of one survives at W (Bradley 1986, 28-9). The middle ward was added to this and subsequently the outer ward and its gatehouse, both of which were constructed in the thirteenth century. The middle ward was entered through a twin-bastioned gatehouse located on the E side of the castle. There is evidence for a square mural tower along the curtain wall of the middle ward at S. Wall footings of a rectangular hall along inner face of curtain wall of middle ward just inside gatehouse to N. The outer ward was entered through a gatehouse located at SE side of castle and accessed by a stone causeway which bridged the deep rock cut ditch that defends the castle at S. This causeway is a later feature and replaces an earlier drawbridge which provided access across the rock cut ditch and into the gatehouse of the outer ward (Bradley et. al. 1986, 31). The Keep was substantially remodelled c. 1600 and is the only part of the castle to have been altered in the seventeenth century (Bradley et. al. 1986, 25; Leask 1941, 64-5).

Excavations on behalf of the OPW, in and around the barbican gatehouse of the castle, took place over a three-week period in October. At the rear of the gatehouse, a cobbled area was exposed running along the inside of the surviving section of the east curtain wall. This is believed to be the original courtyard level. Analysis of the standing fabric of the gateway showed that this level originally continued out to the rebate for the door towards the front of the passage and that the original road level had been reduced, more or less, to that seen at the start of excavation. At the same time parts of the passage walls were refaced down to the new level. On the outside of the door rebate was a drawbridge pit which was cut into a redeposited clay layer forming the surface to which the road level was cut. The pit was divided into two halves by a stone wall standing to a height of c. 0.8m, which ran out to another wall which closed off the front of the gatehouse. This cross wall was not explored to its full depth but the outer face curved across the opening of the gatehouse and had an external batter. On either side of the passageway at the base of the door rebate was a posthole and these postholes were interpreted as receiving the jambs for the modified gate. There was some evidence to suggest that the gatehouse may have been placed on an earlier earthwork but the short duration of the excavation did not allow this possibility to be pursued further. There was also evidence to show that the gatehouse and surviving portion of the east curtain were built earlier than the west curtain. There was no artefactual evidence to date the various phases of the gatehouse. The existence of a drawbridge pit, a 13th-century introduction, would suggest a mid to late 13th-century date for the building of the barbican, while the modifications to the gatehouse probably post-date the Cromwellian slighting of the castle.

The second season of excavations for the OPW concentrated around the inner gatehouse and the adjacent sections of curtain wall. The area excavated included a large area on the inside of the curtain both west and east of the gatehouse, the gatehouse passage, the front of the gatehouse and the area in front of the curtain wall east of the gatehouse. As expected, the gatehouse was found to be square fronted. Three new arrow loops were identified in each of the chambers flanking the gate-passage, and the position of the portcullis was located. There was no trace of any form of drawbridge arrangement. There was, however, evidence that the portcullis slot had been defaced and that, at a slightly later date, a fire had been set in the front of the passage and within the eastern flanking chamber. It appears that there was a period of steady decay both before and after the main phase of dismantling the front of the tower. To the east of the gatehouse an earlier gatehouse was revealed. This was a rectangular stone building measuring 10m by 8m, with opposed openings c. 2m in width set slightly west of centre in the long wall. The walls stand to a height of between 1m and 3m. The defences of this gateway consisted simply of the gate itself, presumably protected from the wall head. The passage rose through the building and there was no evidence to suggest any internal division of the ground floor level and, in the absence of any trace of vaulting, it is believed that the upper floors were wooden. In the second phase of the building, stone batters were added against the south wall on either side of the gate and to the north-east corner of the building. That at the north-east corner was built around a square wooden upright which was possibly part of the wooden stair for access to the upper stories. In the third phase, which is contemporary with the building of the new gatehouse, the gate was blocked off and an arrow loop inserted into the blocking and a second loop cut into the south wall east of the gate. The batter was also continued across the blocking and the north door was narrowed down. At the same time the inside of the building was levelled up with a thick layer of crushed sandstone. The ground level to the north of the building had risen by this time and it was necessary to insert a step down into the building and a drain which ran across the building to open out through the new batter. With the blocking of the early gatehouse the south wall was adapted to become part of the new curtain, while the inside of the building seems to have been used for ancillary purposes. For a time it appears to have been a smithy and then for a short while it was divided into three, with raised platforms at either end. Then, at a time when its roof is believed to have been off, a circular daubed wicker structure c. 2.8m in diameter was inserted into the north-west corner. The function of this is not clear, but char