Page:Archaeologia volume 38 part 1.djvu/191

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Ancient Domestic Architecture of Ireland.
167

century, smaller and rather later than Borris Castle, but very similar to it in general appearance and arrangement. The entrance is into a small inner porch, with three doors, and the "murthering-hole" above, as before described. The ground-floor room is vaulted, and has no fireplace; there is a second vault above, with an intermediate floor. The chief apartment was at the top over the upper vault; it has windows of two lights of the fifteenth century, one cusped, the others with ogee heads. There are not the usual small rooms at the end of the hall on the same level, but above, at half the height of the hall, is a small chamber, probably a bed-room, with a fireplace in it; the mantelpiece of which is carried on corbels of the Irish tongue-shaped pattern. At the south end of the hall are three deep arched recesses, carrying the small chamber above. The ball or chief apartment measures 26 feet 6 inches by 21 feet 6 inches. On the east and west sides are several chimneys; one has lost the top, another has a conical head, with square openings all round under the coping for the smoke to escape. There is a curious arrangement for a garderobe in the thickness of the wall at the south end of the hall below the level, with a staircase, or rather a flight of steps, descending into it ; there is also a garderobe and a fireplace on each of the middle floors. The walls are very thick, and batter considerably; the loopholes to the room on the ground-floor are rudely splayed on the outside.

Mycarkey Castle, near Thurles, is another square tower-house of the fifteenth century, very similar to those already described, but with the wall of enceinte remaining, and rather different in internal arrangement from the others The vault is near the middle of the elevation of the tower, with two floors under it, and two over it; the interior is also divided by a wall, parting off small bed-rooms without fireplaces; the larger rooms have fireplaces. The chief apartment, as usual, was at the top; but the one under it, on the vault, was of nearly equal importance, measuring twenty-two feet by seventeen. The wall of enceinte has an alure behind a parapet, with cruciform loopholes; at one corner of it is a round tower of two stories, with embrasures for falconets, or small cannon. The internal measurements of the bailey are 166 feet by 148.

Ballynahow Castle, near Thurles, is a round tower-house; in other respects much like the square towers in the same neighbourhood. The entrance is into a small inner porch, as usual; the ground room vaulted. On the first floor is a large fireplace, apparently for a kitchen; it has a flat joggled arch, and is ornamented with a sort of cable moulding. The rooms are square within, and the space between the flat wall and the round outer wall is used in different ways; on one side is a sort of cellar or pantry; on another a garderobe, with a cruci-