Mallow Castle

On a slight limestone eminence, overlooking bridge on the Blackwater River c. 150m to the S. These remains of a fortified house are comprised of a rectangular 3-storey house (int. 25m N-S; 8.3m E-W) with 4-storey towers projecting from the NW and SW corners and from the centre of the E and W walls; the former is polygonal in plan, while the latter have straight sides and pointed front (see plan in Leask 1944, plate 1). The plan by Leask also shows wall foundations within the fortified house but not associated with it, which may be part of the earlier castle of the Fitzgerald earls of Desmond (CO033-009004-) (ibid., 23). The house was built by Sir Thomas Norris, a senior English administrator in charge of the management of Munster, who was granted the Manor of Mallow during the Munster plantation; he first repaired and lived in the Fitzgerald castle before building the fortified house (Heritage Castles of County Cork 2017, 133). Thomas died in 1599 (Leask ibid., 24). The house was assaulted and ruined by the Confederate forces in 1645, and burned down in 1689 (Grove White 1905-25 vol. 4, 85). The country house (CO033-009002-) c. 70m to the N is said to incorporate stables associated with the fortified house (Bence-Jones 1978, 200). It is believed to be the earliest fortified house in County Cork, representing a new departure in Irish architecture: primarily designed for domestic comfort, rather than protection or defense (Heritage Castles, ibid.).

The house is entered through two ground-floor doorways, located in the N wall of the central projection on the W wall and in the main E wall just S of the central projection. Both door surrounds have a three-centred arch; the W door has decorative stop chamfers (Leask ibid., plate 3), and a yett hole on the W side. The interior is divided by a cross wall in line with the S wall of the central towers; the W end of the cross wall has collapsed to foundation level but the E end stands to 1st-floor level and has ground and 1st-floor doors which connected to the N and S sections of the house.

The house had wooden floors throughout, now indicated by lines of joist sockets. All floors are well-lit by windows with rectangular lights, divided by single mullion on the ground floor, by two mullions and a transom on the 1st floor and by a single mullion and transom on the 2nd floor. The NW tower contained spiral wooden stairs; there may also have been stairs in the E central tower. The latter has a partially collapsed garderobe shaft in the front angle. There is a ground-floor fireplace, extensively repaired, at the N end of the E wall; there are 1st- and 2nd-floor fireplaces at the S end of the E wall and centre of the S wall, none intact.

The house was defended by a series of gun loops with stirrup openings on the main W and N walls and in the SW, central W, and NW towers; the other two sides of the house have no loops, probably because they faced into a bawn. Many of the loops are positioned directly under the window sills.

Ground- and 1st-floor doorways at the E end of the S wall lead to a lean-to annexe (6.4m N-S; 8.8m E-W) against the S wall of house, a later addition. The annexe originally stood three storeys high, but the walls are now mostly reduced to ground level; there is a large fireplace in the N wall (S wall of the house); Leask's plan shows brick paving laid in herringbone pattern in front of the fireplace and a '...curious bench shaded by partition or screen...' (ibid., 22) on the E side. Inserted doorways in the E wall of the SW tower, one above the other, connected the latter with the annexe; a 2nd-floor doorway replaced the original fireplace in the tower; a replacement fireplace was inserted in the window embrasure in SE wall of tower. Leask's plan also shows a 'cellar' immediately N of the cross wall. His report also mentions 'fragments of thick, small slates, and of molten lead' found during the renovation work; these indicate that 'the timber roof was slated and had gutters of lead' (ibid., 21). His reconstruction of the roof shows a gabled roof over the main block with two subsidiary gables on each side wall, between the towers; he also suggests an attic floor in the roof.

This is a National Monument in State Guardianship (no. 281).