Templemichael Castle

Located on the E side of a short promontory (dims. c. 260m E-W at S; c. 200m N-S) jutting N into the confluence of the W-E Glendine River with the N-S Blackwater River. This is a Fitzgerald tower house that was probably built in the 16th century, and two lords of Decies died there, Gerald Fitzgerald of Dromana (WA029-021001-) in 1553, and his grandson, Gerald of Dromana in 1598. Templemichael was owned by the widow of Garret Fitzgerald in 1640 (Simington 1942, 21). It was apparently attacked by Cromwell in 1649 (O’Connell Redmond 1918, 94-5).

It is a rectangular tower (ext. dims. 12.05m E-W; 10.4m N-S) of five floors with E-W barrel vaults over the first and third floors. Only the E and S walls survive complete with a base-batter and cut-stone quoins. A rebuilt lintelled entrance towards the N end of the E wall leads to a N-S passage protected by a guardroom with an E-W barrel vault to the N, and what are probably two murder-holes. The ground floor chamber (int. dims. 5.7m E-W; 4.75m N-S) has one slit window in the S wall, and a destroyed chamber in the W wall. The entrance passage leads to a newel stairs at the SE angle and a secondary entrance in the S wall.

The stairs rise to the first floor under an E-W vault, entered through a pointed doorway. This floor has mural chambers in the E and W walls, that in the E wall entered from the stairs through a lintelled doorway. The E chamber has a window with a seat in the E wall an a corner light, probably with blocked gun-loops at the NE angle, but its N-S barrel vault is largely destroyed.

There is a cross-loop, a stirrup-loop and slop stone in the stairs to the second floor, which is inaccessible, but it has mural chambers in the E and S walls, the latter with three lights, one plain, one ogee-headed, and a corner light with two two gun-loops. This chamber is vaulted, but that in the E wall is not. The third floor under an E-W vault is entered through a pointed doorway from the stairs, and has mural chambers in the E and S walls, each chamber having a barrel vault. The chamber in the E wall is entered by a lintelled doorway from the stairs. The fourth floor has no ante-chambers, but each surviving wall has a two-light, ogee-headed window. The parapet does not suvive. A garderobe chute exits the W wall at the S end, but the fireplaces must have been in the N or W walls.

There is a stone-built building (int. dims. 12.85m E-W; 5.2m N-S) of one storey with an attic attached to the E of the tower house. This was the rectory of Templemichael (O'Connel Redmond 1918-19, 95) and it has a single dividing wall. This building also incorporated the ground floor of the tower house and re-built its doorway. At the ground floor the S stone wall (T 0.65m) has two doorways and a large window. There is a single doorway in the N wall and a window in the E wall. There are two internal doorways at the ground floor, and there is a doorway in the dividing wall in the attic. It is probably 18th century in date.

Just 4m NE of the tower house is a circular tower (ext. diam. 5.1m; int. diam. 3.1m; H 3.7m over the bawn; ext. H 6.7m), entered through a rebuilt doorway at SW. Only one level survives with a wall recess and three embrasure, two with plain lights, the other blocked. Walls extending to the W and S may have formed the bawn wall, but they are not bonded to the tower. Daniel Grose illustrates the tower house and corner tower accurately from the 1830s (Stalley 1991, 51-3). Templemichael church site (WA037-013001-) is immediately adjacent to the W.