The Project Gutenberg eBook of Castles of Ireland: Some Fortress Histories and Legends
Title: Castles of Ireland: Some Fortress Histories and Legends
Author: Constance Louisa Adams
Illustrator: Lucius Henry O'Brien
Release date: June 27, 2020 [eBook #62488]
Most recently updated: October 18, 2024
Language: English
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Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
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CASTLES OF IRELAND
Castles of Ireland
Some Fortress Histories and
Legends
BY
C. L. ADAMS
ILLUSTRATED BY REV. CANON LUCIUS O’BRIEN
LONDON
ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
1904
INTRODUCTION
The Castles of Ireland are far too numerous for any single volume to contain their separate histories, and all that I claim for the present work is that it includes epitomised accounts of those of chief interest, as well as some regarding which I had special facilities for collecting information. It is, I also believe, the first collection of such records, and therefore I hope but the forerunner of similar works which may be issued in the future, so that the time will yet come when all these interesting relics of a troubled and stormy past may be classified and chronicled, and the present obscurity in which the history of so many of them is shrouded be entirely cleared away.
The number of ruined castles in Ireland is always a matter of surprise to visitors from the Sister Isle, and perhaps they help us, of less stirring days, to realise more fully the continual state of warfare in which our ancestors must have lived than printed records can ever do.
These castles range in dimensions from the few blocks of protruding masonry on the green sward, which mark the foundation of a ruined peel tower, or the scarcely traceable line of wall which was once a fortified bawn, to the majestic ruins of castles like Adare with its three distinct and separate fortifications one within the other, or royal Trim, deemed strong enough to be a prison for English princes.
Yet in the majority of cases little or nothing is known locally about the builders, owners or destroyers who have left us these picturesque, if somewhat sad, mementoes of their warfaring existence. Three items of information will in all probability be supplied to the enquirer—that they were built by King John, occupied by the Geraldines, and demolished by Cromwell in person, and indeed if the hill from which the bombardment was carried out is not shown to the stranger his informant is lacking in the general art of story-telling. In some cases the origin of the castles is boldly attributed by tradition to the Danes, thereby unconsciously introducing the much wider controversy as to whether such stone fortresses were known in Ireland before the landing of the Normans at Wexford in 1169. Be this as it may, it was only subsequent to this date that they were built in any number. Both invaders and invaded relied chiefly on these strongholds for obtaining supremacy in their constant struggles. Grants of land were generally given with the condition of erecting a fortified residence. It was only when the introduction of gunpowder rendered such buildings untenable in war, that they were very generally deserted for more comfortable dwellings, and jackdaws alone keep watch to-day from many a crumbling battlement that once echoed a sentinel’s tread, and bovine heads protrude from the doorways from which mailed knights rode forth to battle.
I regret to say that space forbids my mentioning by name all those owners of castles and others who have so generously assisted me in compiling the following accounts, but perhaps I may be allowed to specially acknowledge the valuable help I received from the Librarian and Assistant Librarians of the National Library, Dublin, Lord Walter Fitzgerald, and Mr. Herbert Wood, of the Public Record Office.
C. L. ADAMS.
CONTENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
THE LEGEND OF KILKEA CASTLE.
From their death-like sleep in Mullaghmast,
And the ghostly troop, with its snow-white horse,
On the Curragh plain to Kilkea rode past.
For the Lord of Kildare goes forth to-night,
And has left his rest in the lonely rath.
Oh, roughen the road for the silver shoes,
That they wear full soon on his homeward path.
With a trumpet blast and his warriors bold,
And the spell that was by his lady cast
Will pass away as a tale once told.
For dearly she loved her noble lord,
And she wished that no secret from her he kept,
So she longed to know why in chamber small
He watched and toiled while the household slept.
The secret dark of his vaulted cell,
“For fear,” he said, “in the human frame,
Lets loose the power of furthest hell.”
But she feared for naught save his waning love,
And at length to her wish he bent an ear,
So flood, and serpent, and ghost gave place,
For the lady’s heart had shown no fear.
That rested its wing on her shoulder fair;
But the lady screamed and swooned away
When a cat sprang forth from the empty air.
For a woman must fear for the one she loves,
And a woman’s heart will break in twain,
When she knows that her hand has struck the blow
To the man she had died to save from pain.
Till the silver shoes of his steed are worn,
By which every seven years, they say,
To Kilkea and back to the rath he’s born.
And swiftly they pass, that phantom band,
With the Earl on his charger gleaming white,
So we think ’tis the shade of a cloud goes by,
With a shifting beam of the moon’s pale light.
Peers Hervey.
ADARE CASTLE
By many a heart’s blood once defended,
Yet silent now as cloistered aisle,
Where rung the sounds of banquet splendid.”
Gerald Griffin.
This name is a corruption of Athdare, or Ath-daar, signifying “The ford of oaks.” The present village is situated on the west bank of the River Maig, nine miles south-south-west of Limerick.
Desmond Castle, on the east bank, commands the river pass, and near the northern entrance to the castle were formerly the remains of a gateway and wall, traditionally supposed to have belonged to the ancient town of Adare.
The ruins of the fortress are extensive. They consist of an outer and inner ward, separated by a moat, which in former times was crossed by a drawbridge.
There are three entrances to the outer ward, the chief being a square gate tower in the west wall which was defended by a portcullis. There is another entrance on the north, as well as a doorway opening on the river.
The chief buildings are situated near the water’s edge. They consist of the great hall which is 75 feet long by 37 feet in breadth. It is lighted by three windows of rough masonry in its south wall and by one on the west, with fifteenth-century “ogee” heads inserted in the older workmanship.
The doorway on the east opens to the river. The chief entrance and porch were on the north side. The base of one of the sandstone jambs remains, showing it to have been of thirteenth century date. The walls are 3 feet thick, and the roof, which had a very high gable, was supported by four pillars.
At the eastern end are the buttery and smaller offices, while separated from them by a passage is the ruined kitchen (45 feet by 19 feet), which contains the remains of an oven and also a small well of river water. A curtain wall running west, connects these building with a fine oblong, two-storey structure, 56 feet by 31 feet, which is remarkable, inasmuch as the walls of the top storey are thicker than those below, the extra width being supported by projecting stones. The top room, which has loops splayed for archery, was reached by an exterior stone stair. The floor was supported on beams, and the lower room seems to have been used as a stable.
Adjoining the building is a small square tower, which projects into the river that flows under it through an archway in the basement. A wall connects this tower with the gateway.
The inner ward is now reached by a small wooden bridge. The gate tower is connected with the S.E. angle of the keep by a thick curved curtain with an embrasured and looped parapet. A turret protected the juncture of the outer and inner walls. A semicircular tower also projects from the boundary wall on the left of the inner court. It was loopholed, and divided into two storeys.
The keep, which is in the inner court, is about 40 feet square and 67 feet high. Only the north wall and the portions adjoining it remain at their original height. The side next the river is entirely broken down, tradition saying it was destroyed with cannon in Cromwell’s time from the opposite hill. The angles of the remaining wall are crowned with turrets.
The doorway leading to the vaults being of later date than the rest it is supposed they were of more recent insertion. One of the dungeons seems to have been used as a prison. It is lighted by a loop of peculiar construction.
A staircase leads to the chief apartments, and a well of river water is within the walls. The height of the keep seems to have had a third added to it after its original construction as is shown by the old weather-tabling of the roof. The present building was divided into three storeys above the ground floor, which was vaulted. The stairway was in the thickness of the west wall. Small cells occupy the projecting portions at the angles.
From the objects that have been found in the moat which surrounds the keep, it has been thought likely that it occupies the site of a rath, as some of the relics are of much anterior date to the Norman Conquest. The fortress is supposed to have been formerly a stronghold of the O’Donovans until they were dispossessed by the invaders.
The architecture of one of the windows seems to be that in vogue during the close of the twelfth century.
Lenihan states that Adare was famous for its castle and church in the reign of Henry II.
Geoffrey de Mariscis, Justiciary of Ireland, was granted permission to hold a fair in his manor of Adare in 1226, but according to the Spanish historian, Lopez, it had passed into the hands of the “Earls” of Kildare in 1227, when (still according to him) the Earl of March came from Scotland to Adare on shipping business, and the “Earls” of Kildare, not deeming the accommodation at the inn fit for his rank, insisted that he should come to their castle. During the visit he spoke in such praise of the Trinitarian order that the Earl’s father said he would found a priory at Adare. The story is probably inaccurate. In the first place the Earldom of Kildare was not created until 1316, and Lopez speaks of “Earls” in the plural. It is also hard to imagine what shipping business could have been transacted in an inland town. Yet no doubt there is some foundation for the record, as in 1279, 1315, and 1464 other abbeys were founded at Adare by the Kildare Geraldines.
In 1290 the manor of Adare was in the possession of Maurice FitzGerald, 5th Baron of Offaly, and his wife, Lady Agnes de Valence, cousin of the King. Their claim being disputed, a charter was issued in 1299 confirming the grant.
The castle was rebuilt in 1326 by the 2nd Earl of Kildare.
Edward III. granted the lands of Adare to the Earl’s stepfather, Sir John Darcy, during the Earl’s minority in 1329, and it was probably at this time that the inquisition was held in the report of which we find the first authenticated mention of the castle. It is described as having a hall, a chapel with stone walls and covered with thatch, a tower covered with planks, a kitchen covered with slates, and a chamber near the stone part covered with thatch.
Turlough O’Brien burned it sometime during the fifteenth century.
The estate was forfeited by Gerald, 8th Earl of Kildare, for his adherence to the cause of Perkin Warbeck, but it was shortly afterwards restored.
When the 9th Earl of Kildare was summoned to London to answer the charge of allowing the Earl of Desmond to evade arrest, it is likely that he set out from Adare, as he was in that part of the country. It was during this trial in 1526 that Cardinal Wolsey cried out, “The Earl, nay, the King of Kildare—for, when you are disposed, you reign more like than rule the land.”
Upon the confiscation of the estate after the rebellion of “The Silken Thomas,” in 1536, the Earl of Desmond became possessed of Adare, which he leased the following year from the Crown. He seems to have done so with the intention of restoring the lands to his kinsman, the young Gerald, then in hiding from the Government.
The castle remained in the Earl of Desmond’s possession (with intermissions) until his death in 1583, when it reverted to the Kildare branch of the Geraldines. His name still clings to the ruins, no doubt because of the stormy scenes that occurred at Adare during his short ownership.
Here in 1570 the celebrated Leverus, Bishop of Kildare, sought shelter with the Earl of Desmond. He had been tutor to the young heir to the Earldom of Kildare, when a price was set upon his head after the rebellion of the Lord Thomas. Leverus had saved his pupil, who was ill with smallpox, by putting him in a basket, wrapped in blankets, and taking him from Kildare to Thomond.
In 1578 the castle was taken by Sir Nicholas Malby after a siege of eleven days, and garrisoned by English under Captain Carew.
Sir John Desmond, the Earl’s brother, shortly afterwards assaulted it in vain. The following year saw continual warfare round the town of Adare between the two parties, and a garrison of English was placed there by the Lord Deputy, who was accompanied by the Earl of Kildare.
Desmond made every effort to recover the castle in 1580. He resorted to several stratagems, one of which was to send a beautiful young woman to the constable, by whose means he hoped the castle might be betrayed. But upon hearing from whence she came, the officer tied a stone round her neck and threw her into the river.
The following year, however, Colonel Zouch, having disbanded part of his forces, the Earl gained possession of the castle, and put the garrison to the sword. Fresh forces arriving from Cork, Zouch marched on Adare, only to find it deserted; but he pursued the Irish to Lisconnel, where he defeated them in an engagement.
Captain Mynce was recommended as custodian in 1585, and in 1598 Mr. Marshal’s castles of Bruff and Adare were reported to have been taken.
In 1600 the Sugan Earl of Desmond occupied Adare, but upon the approach of Sir George Carew, in July, the Irish burnt the castle and fled. He reports it as “a manor-house belonging to the Earls of Kildare, wholly ruined by Pierce Lacy.”
This Lacy was one of the Earl of Desmond’s supporters.
Insurgents seized the stronghold in 1641, but were driven out by the Earl of Castlehaven, and the castle is said to have been dismantled in 1657 by Cromwell’s orders.
The lands remained in the possession of the Earls of Kildare until 1721, when they were purchased by the Quin family, now represented by the Earl of Dunraven.
| Authorities Consulted. |
| J. Dowd, “The County of Limerick.” |
| The Countess and Earl of Dunraven, “Memorials of Adare.” |
| Marquis of Kildare, “The Earls of Kildare.” |
| M. Lenihan, “Limerick: Its History and Antiquities.” |
| J. Ferrar, “History of Limerick.” |
| Parliamentary Gazetteer. |
| Calendar of State Documents. |
| Calendar of Carew MSS. |