Garrykennedy tower house

Chaisleáin Uí Garraí [Castlegare] stands on the N shoreline of Lough Derg, on the quay of a small harbour in the village of Garrykennedy. Described in Civil Survey of 1654-6 as 'Upon the sd. lands standeth the Demolished Castle of Castlegare and six thatch Tennem[en]ts' (Simington 1934, vol. 2, 153). Daniel O'Brien is listed as proprietor in 1640 (ibid.). Only the SW angle survives with a length of the S (L 5.2m; wall T 0.5-0.55m) and W (L 3.5m) walls. The tower was constructed of roughly coursed limestone rubble which has been crudely pointed internally and externally. On the ground floor there are wall presses, with the S side of an embrasure on the W wall and the W side of an embrasure on the S wall. At first-floor level there is a mural chamber in the S wall. This chamber, which is L-shaped, the return being only 0.3m deep, has good wicker centring on the roof. It is lit by two loops in the S wall and rectangular ope in the W wall which has been altered and widened - the chamfered head of a narrow flat-headed light is still in situ.

The castle was described in 1840 as following; 'The ruin now consists of south and west walls with some of the interior work of the building. It contains one narrow apartment (or chamber) in the south wall, which had its roof resting on a hurdle, the greater part of which still remains at east end. The apartment was lighted by two quadrangular openings on south wall; the one to east is partly broken on the Interior and exterior, the one to west long and narrow and constructed of roughly dressed greyish black stone (lime?); by an opening on west wall which is battered outside, the stones forming it having been removed. The walls are about forty feet [12.2m] in height and at top of west wall are two stones jutting beyond the under surface. The south west corner on outside is battered below, the stones being removed out of it. The length of south wall is now about seventeen feet [5.2m]; the length of west wall is eleven feet three inches [3.4m]. Thickness of the west wall is one foot five inches [0.43m]. The exterior shows a structure of green or grit stone. Some of the stones are rather small and some shapeless or polygonal. Some are rather long and quadrangular and most are dressed with a hammer’ (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 3, 20-1).