Kilfeakle Castle

In a flat river valley with a stream running N-S c. 70m to the W, the land rises to E of the tower house and across the river to the W, in an area of rock outcrop, in pasture. The tower house (int. dims. 7.87m N-S; 5.64m E-W; wall T 2.3m) was probably at least four storeys high, constructed of limestone rubble, roughly coursed. It survives to first-floor level with a vault over the first floor. The exterior is heavily overgrown with ivy. According to the OS Letters, 'At the northeast and northwest, the corners of the building present to the view, each a round tower, form outside' (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 2, 106(291)) by which is meant that the tower house has rounded corners, as mentioned in the I.T.A. Survey (1943). There may be the remains of the second floor but the area above the vault is obscured by ivy. The tower house was entered through a doorway in the S wall. This doorway, together with the external S wall has collapsed and there is a lot of rubble within the interior at the S end. There appears to have been an entrance lobby and portion of an internal S wall (T 0.85m) survives with evidence of a spiral stairs in the SE angle. The presence of a guardroom to the W of the entrance lobby is suggested by the survival of a wall-cupboard in the external face of the surviving S wall, which was formerly the N wall of the guardroom. The ground floor was lit by three windows, one in the N, E and W walls. Only the E loop survives intact, it is flat-headed with an external chamfer. The other loops have been broken out. There are three wall-cupboards in the main chamber, one at either end of the W wall and one at the E end of the N wall. The first floor was carried on a wooden floor supported on corbels on the E and W walls and was lit by a single loop in the N wall. There is a hole in the vault towards the N end and the S end of the vault has collapsed. On the 1st (1840) ed. 6-inch OS map a lime kiln is indicated immediately S of the tower house and another adjacent to the W wall. A small building is shown projecting eastward from the S end of the E wall and a trackway runs past the S side of the tower house leading to a quarry 160m to the SSE. According to the OS Letters, 'On the east wall outside is an opening twelve [3.6m] or fourteen feet [4.2m] in height from the ground, which gives ingress to a flight of stairs that ascends in the centre of the wall in a northward direction the whole of the present height of the Castle. Under this opening there is built up against the wall a thatched cabin (it looks more like a shed than a regularly built cabin) where stone steps, it is probable, led up to it originally. The wall is somewhat battered around the opening' (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 2, 106). Due to the heavy growth of ivy on the external E wall no traces of these features described in the OS Letters were visible. However, the I.T.A. Survey (1943) mentions a garderobe in the E wall.