Skerry's Castle

Faintly drawn on an early 19th-century sketch by Robertson as a substantial tower house (Manning 1998, 69, fig. 20). It is indicated on the 25-inch OS map as a roofless rectangular building on the N side of West Street, and is annotated, ‘Castle (in Ruins)’. It is described by Carrigan (1905, vol. 3, 293) as, ‘”Skerry’s castle,” now a roofless, but substantial ruin, in West Street’. In the ‘Aphorismical Discovery’, a contemporary account of the Cromwellian campaign in Ireland, describes the taking of Callan, when amongst those defending the town was, ‘one Captain Marcus Geoghegan of Frevenagh, in the barony of Moycashell [Westmeath], with his company, in a petty castle, a kinde of gate hous, thatched with strawe’ (Gibson 1880, vol. 2, 64). According to Carrigan (ibid. 295), ‘Local tradition seems to connect Skerry’s castle, in West Street, with Captain Geoghegan’s memorable stand. It is said to have been reduced by the Cromwellians by scalding to death the soldiers who defended it. Some of the townspeople who took refuge in the lower rooms perished in the same way. This tradition may be confirmed by the fact that in 1830, while the castle was undergoing some alterations, the workmen engaged in levelling the garden to the rere came upon an immense quantity of bones which were estimated to be the remains of over 150 human beings’. This castle could also be the ‘Midle=Gate’ indicated on Thomas Stuish’s map of 1681 (Manning 1998, 63, fig. 13). According to Walsh (1952, 20), ‘Skerry’s Castle’ was also known as, ‘Cook’s Castle’ and he also equates it with the castle defended by Captain Geoghegan. A drawing c. 1813 shows the tops of four tower houses from near St Augustine's Well, the one on the right is ‘Skerry’s Castle’ (1998, 66, fig. 16). It is described in the Civil Survey (1654-6) (ibid. 52) as property 4 on West Street, 'A slated house with a castle, 3 storeys high, length 53 feet, breadth 23. A garden & orchard 20 perch'. The owner is given as, ‘Rich[ard] ffoster Ir[ish] Pa[pist]' with ‘Patt. Vance P[rotestan]t' as the tenant (ibid.). A rectangular tower house (int. dims. c. 12.6m E-W; c. 8m N-S; ext. dims. c. 14.9m E-W; c. 9.7m N-S; wall T E gable 1.1m; W gable 1.2m; S wall 0.85m) constructed on roughly coursed limestone rubble with well-cut quoins. Only the lower portion of the E gable remains upstanding, with the outline of the other walls visible at ground level. The internal ground level has been raised. The E gable survives to first-floor level (H c. 6.5-8m). At ground-floor level there is a splayed embrasure at the N end of the E gable for a small single-light window with external hood-moulding and broken sill. There is a wall-cupboard at the S end of the gable. Between ground and first-floor level there is a horizontal row of crudely inserted joist-holes. At first-floor level there are the remains of a spiral-stair in the NE angle and there is a fireplace S of centre in the gable, the opening of which has been narrowed. The N polished limestone jamb of the fireplace is visible, but the rest of the fireplace and most of the S side of the internal face of the gable is obscured by heavy ivy growth. (Farrelly et al. 1993, 117-18) During an archaeological assessment of a boundary wall (L 15.5m) c. 5m W of Skerry’s Castle, a blocked opening c. 1.5m wide was notes, which was interpreted as, ‘a door or a gateway between the buildings and a boundary wall, perhaps the west wall of a Skerry’s Castle garden’ (Moran 1998; excavation licence no. 98E0280).