Loughmoe Castle

Situated on flat pasture with good views in all directions. 'Theobald Purcell of Loghmoe Esqr. Irish Papist' is listed as proprietor in 1640 and the house is described as 'a large demolished stone house' (Simington 1931, vol.1, 69). A seventeenth-century Z-plan house which was added to the N façade of an adjoining tower house (TN035-030005). The house consists of a central rectangular block (ext. dims. 10.2m E-W; 26.7m N-S; wall T 1.1m) which is four storeys high with attic over a semi-basement and has a five-storey angle tower at the NW and SE angles. The main block is a single pile construction possibly divided into three rooms at each level by wooden partitioning. There are two fireplaces at first-floor level with a series of flat-headed fireplaces at all other levels. At the S end of the house at basement level there is a large fireplace with brick oven in the E wall. All windows are flat-headed with six, eight and twelve lights with alternating square and lozenge-shaped glazing-bar-holes visible. There are several entrances at first-floor level, one in the S end of the W wall and a second at the N end of the E wall being the two main entrances to the house. A round-arched doorway at second-floor level off-centre to the N on the E wall gives access to a wooden hoarding from which the bartizan on the NE angle was accessed. The NW angle tower was the main accommodation tower with fireplaces at all levels and also contained a wooden stairs from which all rooms of tower and main house were accessed. The SE angle tower was a defensive tower with many gun loops visible. All upper floors of this tower were accessed from the S end of the main block via a wooden stairs and were not accessible from within the tower itself. According to Crawford (1909b, 234) there is a blocked-up doorway in the centre of the E wall which gave access to an external cellar now destroyed, however, there is no visible evidence of this doorway. At wall-walk level there are the fragmentary remains of double-stepped crenellations with central rounded merlon surmounted by a finial. These merlons covered the small rectangular chimney stacks which were not visible externally. (Wright 1885-6, 432-9; Long 1898, 110-15; Crawford 1909b, 234-41; Seymour 1909, 70-74; O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 1, 179-80; Simington 1931, vol. 1, 69; Leask 1951, 132-3; Waterman 1961, 254-5; Harbison 1970, 232; Craig 1972, 57; de Breffny and ffolliott 1975, 43-4; McCullough and Mulvin 1987, 38, 49; Bence-Jones 1988, 193)