ornaments on the surface over it, apparently a stone taken from some ancient building and used again. The second story is also vaulted, and has seats in the jambs of the windows, a drain from a lavatory, and a small square cupboard in the wall over it. The upper room or chief chamber has windows on all the four sides, with a stone socket for the iron rod of the casement to work upon. There is no fireplace in the whole tower, which was probably more of a keep for the last defence than a usual habitation; it has no bartizans or projections of any kind. The bastion towers in the wall of enceinte seem to be of the fifteenth century; the wall itself is very thick, and has loop-holes; on one side there are windows of two lights, as if of a hall, and there are a fireplace and chimney; this is part of the work of the fifteenth century, and seems to show that the buildings in the courtyard were inhabited at that time.
CAPITALS OF WINDOW SHAFTS, ATHENRY CASTLE.
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ORNAMENTAL BAND ON WINDOW SHAFT, ATHENRY CASTLE. |
BASE OF WINDOW SHAFT, ATHENRY CASTLE. |
Athenry Castle, co. Galway, is a fine example of a fortified house or tower of the thirteenth century (see Plate VI.) ; the plan is oblong, and the ground-floor is divided into two parts by a row of arches down the middle, with two vaults, plain
