Page:Archaeologia volume 38 part 1.djvu/192

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168
Observations on the

form loophole; a third side is occupied by the fireplace; the fourth appears to be solid; the windows are at three of the corners of the room; in the fourth is the doorway to the staircase; there are embrasures for falconets on this floor and below. Over the kitchen was another room with a wooden floor, and over that another vault, above which was the principal chamber, which is octagonal within, and has three windows of two lights with ogee heads; and in the recesses are embrasures on each side of the windows; a large square fireplace, chimney, and a garderobe. There are a parapet and alure round the top, and bartizans are thrown out on corbels, exactly like those at Borris Castle.

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GROUND PLAN, ANNADOWN CASTLE, CO. GALWAY.

At Thurles there are three of the tower-houses of the fifteenth century: one near the bridge seems to have been a gatehouse, as the springing of an arch over the road remains against the side of the tower; it contains a vault, with floors above and below it, fireplaces, and garderobes on each floor, so that it was evidently intended for habitation. Another tower near the market-place is late in the fifteenth century, but rather a good example; it has two vaults—one over the ground floor, the other over the third floor, and over this the chief apartment, making five stories in all, with a fireplace in each, and a garderobe at the end of a passage in the wall, on each floor. In the upper chamber are five deep recesses, four of which have windows in them; the fifth seems to have been a lavatory, as there is a water-drain from it. The battlements are destroyed. Near this are the ruins of a round tower-house, and within a few years there were two other square towers near these; and the whole were connected by a wall of enceinte, inclosing a bailey of considerable size; of this wall there are some remains; probably the other towers were bastions in the outer wall. It must have been a castle of some importance.

Annadown Castle, co. Galway, appears to belong to the fifteenth century; it is situated on the shore of a little bay of Lough Corrib; the bay is about a bowshot across, and immediately opposite, close to the shore, are the ruins of the abbey and of the parish church of Annadown. The arrangements of this castle are shown by the accompanying ground-plan and section. The existence of