Tubbrid Castle

On a slight rise on the lower of two terraces along SE of the Nuenna river valley. Land drops NW into the valley and rises to the E and SE to the upper terrace. There are very fine views along and across the valley, with Clomantagh (KK013-002001-) castle visible c. 1.5km to the NNW. Carrigan (1905, vol. 2, 371) notes that in 1621-22 Nicholas Shortall, ‘had died seised of the manor, castle, town and lands of Tibbin, otherwise Tibbrudbrittaine [Tubbrid]’. On the Down Survey (1655-6) parish map and accompanying terrier Robert Shortall is listed as the proprietor in 1640 (Hibernia Regnum, courtesy of Trinity College Dublin). In 1653 another Nicholas Shortall forfeited the land when it was granted to the Earl of Ormond. He relates that the construction of the castle is traditionally attributed to, ‘Mairgread nhee Gearoid, whose “bed” [the look-out platform] is pointed out on the top of the old keep’, though this tradition is associated with a number of castles in Kilkenny (ibid.). He postulates that the castle may originally have belonged to the Ormonds but that during the latter half of the 16th century it passed to the Shortalls, before returning to the Ormonds in the mid-17th century (ibid.). The tower house is likely to date from the latter part of the 15th century based on its general form and the style of the stepped shouldered arch windows. The third-floor fireplace with a date of 1596 is likely to be a later insertion, as is the fireplace of similar style below, as it would be very unusual for a tower house of this date not to have any gun-loops.

A four-storey tower house (ext. dims. 10.6m NW-SE; 9.3m NE-SW; wall T 2.25m), though the first-floor is a high vaulted storage space rather than a true storey. It is built of roughly coursed limestone rubble with roughly dressed quoins and has a base-batter (H c. 2.2m; Wth 0.5m). There is a mural chamber at parapet level along the NE wall and look-out platform above this. The tower house was renovated in 2016-17, with a new roof built as well as largely reconstructed battlements. The circulation in this tower house is via separate flights of mural stairs, rising one above the other in the E angle, from mid-way along the SE wall to mid-way along the NE wall, with the third floor being accessed from a doorway in the SE wall of the main second floor chamber.

The tower house was entered at ground-floor level through a pointed doorway (H 2.1m; Wth 0.98m), rebated externally, roughly centrally placed in the SE wall. Externally it is protected by a machicolation at parapet level, the upper portion of which has been reconstructed. Internally the entrance lobby is defended by a murder-hole. Access to the ground floor is opposite the main entrance. The ground floor was lit by three single-light windows, in the NE, SW and NW wall, only the SW loop with a double-splaying embrasure survives unaltered, the embrasure surround of the NW window survives but the splays and light itself are broken out and the NE light was broken out when a later entrance was inserted. At the NE end of the NW wall a fireplace with timber bressamer was inserted with the flue utilising the garderobe chute which is blocked-up externally. The NW wall has one wall-cupboard. There are corbels on the SE and NW walls to support the wooden floor of the first-floor.

The first-floor, as mentioned above, is not a true storey, being more of a storage loft. It must have been accessed by a ladder or wooden stair through the timber floor. It was lit by a single-light window in the NE wall, the embrasure has been modified and blocked up but it splays outwardly externally.

In the main entrance lobby a flat-headed doorway leads to a mural stair in the E angle which is lit by a number of simple flat-headed loops. The barrel-vaulted second floor is entered from a pointed doorway mid-way along the NE wall, accessed via the mural stair. Opposite this doorway, at the top of the mural stair there is a shouldered-arch single-light window with slop-stone beneath. Also accessed from the top of this stair is a garderobe chamber in the N angle, which dog-legs into the NW wall. The main second-floor chamber is lit by three windows, a chamfered stepped shouldered-arch two-light mullion and transomed window in the SW wall and a single-light window of the same type in the NW wall with a broken out window at the SW end of the SE wall, all with stone window seats on either side of the embrasure. There is a polished limestone pseudo-four-centred fireplace at the NE end of the NW wall with chamfered jambs with a decorative stop above the simple runout. There are two wall-cupboards in the SW wall and one in the NE wall. Corbels on the SE and NW walls suggest that there was a loft space under the vault, much lower than that at first-floor level, and in this case the floor of the loft would have cut across the upper part of the first-floor embrasures and the SW window. The corbels could be related to the construction phase of the vault, for supporting formwork.

A doorway in the SE wall of the second-floor chamber gives access to a mural stair which rises to third-floor level. The small lobby area at the base of the stair is light by a shouldered-arch single-light window and there is a recess to the SW, the base of which contains the murder-hole chute. As with the floor below, the third floor is entered from a doorway in the NE wall with a flat-headed single-light with slop-stone beneath lighting the mural lobby. The stair then continues up to battlement level. The main third-floor chamber is light by two chamfered stepped shouldered-arch two-light mullion and transomed windows, one in the NW wall and the other in SE wall, both with stone windows seats on either side of the embrasure. There is evidence of plank centring in the soffit of the window embrasures. There is a polished limestone pseudo-four-centred fireplace at the NE end of the NW wall, carved in false relief on either end of the bi-partite lintel with the date ‘15’, ‘96’. Carrigan (1905, vol. 2, 371) noted that the fireplace had been removed from the castle, but it was returned as part of the restoration works in c. 2016. The jambs have been reconstructed. There are two wall-cupboards in the SW wall. A round-headed doorway at the NW end of the NE wall gives access to a dog-leg garderobe chamber in the N angle. There is a gabled roof over the main chamber, at the base of the gable on the SW wall there is an offset supported on a row of corbels on the, providing support externally for a wall-walk, however the gable itself appears to be a later addition and its rectangular opening is either an enlarged or inserted window.