after the Hollow-Sword-Blade Company of London bought it. Upon leaving
he took away many of the oak beams of the castle for his new residence
at Dawstown.
Chief Justice Pyne then purchased it, and held it for a short time, but
in 1703 Sir James Jeffreys bought the castle and lands, and from him
the present owner, Sir George Colthurst, is descended.
There is in the possession of The O’Donovan, at Liss Ard, Skibbereen,
a dadagh, or Irish skean, with which an O’Donovan killed M‘Carty Reagh
about the middle of the sixteenth century. The dispute arose about some
plundered cattle which M‘Carty wished to drive into the bawn of Blarney
without division. Being opposed by O’Donovan, he attacked him and threw
him down, but O’Donovan, although on the ground, snatched the dadagh
from him, and slew him with his own weapon.
About a quarter of a mile south-west of the castle, in the park is
the lake, where it is supposed the plate chest of the last Earl of
Clancarty was thrown before the castle was surrendered to William’s
forces, and a legend says that the Earl rises from the lake every seven
years, and walks two or three miles in the hope that some one will
speak to him, so that he may tell them where it lies. Another version
says that as soon as the estate is restored to the MacCartys the chest
will be discovered. A little silver ring has been found in the lake.
AUTHORITIES CONSULTED.
Calendar of State Papers.
Carew MSS.
Parliamentary Gazetteer.
Joyce, “Irish Names of Places.”
Croker, “Fairy Legends,” and “Researches in the South of Ireland.”
Savage, “Picturesque Ireland.”
Windele, “Notices of the City of Cork and Vicinity.”
Smith, “History of Cork.”
C. C. Woods, “Blarney Castle” (_Journal of the Cork
Archæological Society_).
Proceedings of Archæological Association of Ireland.
[Illustration: BUNRATTY CASTLE.]
_BUNRATTY CASTLE_
The village of Bunratty is situated in the Barony of Lower Bunratty,
County Clare, and the castle stands on the banks of the Ougarnee River,
a little above its juncture with the Shannon on its northern bank,
about six miles below Limerick.
The former name of the river was Ratty, and the name, therefore,
signifies the end or mouth of the Ratty.
The fortress is still in a very fair state of preservation and shows
many signs of alterations during its existence.
It consists of an oblong structure, flanked by four square towers built
into the angles, which are joined at the head by depressed arches.
The north-east tower contains an oratory. It has a piscina, and the
ceiling is a handsome specimen of richly moulded seventeenth-century
stucco work, probably executed when the “great Earl” of Thomond
restored the castle in 1610. Out-offices and servants’ quarters
formerly surrounded the main building, but were removed by the late Mr.
Studdert to supply material for the modern manor house.
An inscribed stone at the summit of the castle states that the present
building was erected by O’Brien in 1397. There are marks of shot still
visible on the walls.
The cantred of Tradee was granted in fee farm to the Norman Robert de
Muscegros, at a yearly rent of £30.
Henry III. remitted him two years’ rent in 1251 to enable him to
fortify Bunratty Castle, which he had built. Shortly after he
surrendered it to the King on condition he was allowed for the
repairing, provisioning, and defending of it. It was taken by the Irish
in 1257.
De Muscegros exchanged his lands of Tradee, in Thomond, with Sir
Richard de Clare in 1275 for property in England, and the following
year Bunratty Castle was taken for the King by Geoffry de Gyamul, Lord
Justice.
The same year King Brian the Red granted to de Clare the district he
had acquired by exchange, and he at once began to repair the castle.
It is recorded he built “a defensive thick-walled castle of lime
and stone, which was a sheltered, impregnable fortress, and a wide
white-washed mansion which he founded in the clear-harboured Bunratty,”
and that he resided here with English retainers whom he purchased “for
love or money.”
Torlough O’Brien invaded Thomond, and its King, Brian, fled to
Bunratty. Among those who opposed the invaders was de Clare’s
brother-in-law, Patrick Fitz-Maurice, who was slain in the conflict.
When news of his death reached Bunratty there was great lamentation,
and his sister, de Clare’s wife, denounced King Brien, who was then at
dinner, as the cause of the disaster.
He was thereupon dragged from the table, bound to wild horses, and
literaly torn to pieces. This act of treachery was rendered even more
horrible from the fact that he and de Clare had sworn friendship with
the most solemn rites.
Among the State Documents of 1298 is an entry for expenses and wages
of horse and foot soldiers in an expedition to relieve Bunratty, which
was besieged by Turlough O’Brien. This attack probably took place at an
earlier date.
The castle was besieged again in 1305 by Coveha MacConmara and the
outworks burnt, which is thus picturesquely described: “Yea, at this
bout, the open-spaced Bunratty, when it was gutted, fed the flames;
and by the Wolf-dog’s pertinacity, not once, but twice, were many of
the lime-white towers burnt.”
The fortress was not taken, and Lord Burke persuaded MacConmara to
raise the siege.
At this time Maurice de Rochford was custodian.
The Earl of Ulster marched into Clare with a great army in 1311 to
besiege Bunratty. Richard de Clare sallied out to meet him on the hill
behind the fortress, but was obliged to retreat. William de Burgo,
pressing too far in pursuit, was taken prisoner, as well as John, son
of Walter de Lacy.
In 1313, de Clare was about to hang O’Brien’s son, who was hostage
for the tribe of Coileau, but his wife, with the clergy and nobility,
interceded for him.
De Clare and his son Thomas were killed in 1318 in the battle of Dysert
O’Dea, and upon his wife, Lady Johan de Clare, hearing of the disaster,
she set fire to the castle and sailed for England.
The following year it was spoiled by King Mortogh.
It was immediately repaired, and the Government assigned it to
Matilda, wife of Robert de Wills, and Margaret, wife of Bartholomew de
Badlesmere, sisters to Richard de Clare, and appointed Robert Sutton
constable.
In 1326 it was held for the Crown by James de bello Fago, and in 1332
it was besieged and taken by the Macnamaras.
There is an order dated 1356 to liberate Thomas, the son of John
FitzMaurice, who had been imprisoned as accessory to the loss of the
castle.
The Lord Deputy recovered the fortress in 1558 by firing across the
river until the garrison of Donnell O’Brien surrendered it.
The Earl of Thomond was proclaimed rebel in 1570, and fled to sea; the
Earl of Ormond meantime garrisoned Bunratty with his own men, but in
1585 the castle was confirmed to the Earl of Thomond.
The “Great Earl” of Thomond restored it in 1617.
Some authorities say Lord Forbes seized the castle in 1642 in a
buccaneering expedition.
When the rebellion broke out in 1641 the Earl of Thomond of the time
found himself in a difficult position, for by religion he might have
been supposed to side with the Government, while at the same time
he was closely related to many of the prominent Confederates, being
uncle to Lord Muskerry who commanded their troops in the south. He,
therefore, remained quietly at Bunratty taking neither side, but he was
too powerful to be allowed to presevere in neutrality.
The Supreme Council of the Confederates entrusted the seizure of
both the castle and Earl to his relatives, the O’Briens, but in the
meantime the Earl of Ormond had entered into a treaty with the Earl of
Thomond whereby the latter was to surrender the castle of Bunratty to a
governor they mutually agreed upon.
The choice fell upon Colonel Adams, “a stout officer,” who, with
upwards of six hundred men, took possession of the stronghold in 1645.
The governor was a Scotchman whose family name was Adam, but upon
settling in Ireland he seems to have been called Adams, and sometimes
MacAdam. He was married to the Hon. Catherine Magennis, granddaughter
of Hugh, Earl of Tyrone, therefore his wife was first cousin to Owen
Roe O’Neill, which, no doubt, guided his selection as commander of
Bunratty garrison.
Before the castle was surrendered the Earl of Thomond built all his
plate and money into the walls to the amount of £2,000, and had the
place plastered and rough cast. Some of the servants betrayed the fact
to the soldiers, and they seized the Earl and threatened to kill him
unless he showed them the treasure, whereupon they took it before his
face. He afterwards tried to recover it as a debt from the Government
in vain.
The castle was provisioned at the cost of £1,200 by John Davies.
The Earl of Thomond left his fortress in the hands of the soldiers and
sailed for England. Colonel Adams at once set to work to put the place
in a state of defence by raising earthworks and fortifying outlying
positions, as well as mounting cannon in the garden, his was much
helped in his operations by the marshy character of the surrounding
country.
The Confederates sent an army to besiege the castle, which encamped in
the park. They were shortly afterwards joined by Lord Muskerry, who
seems to have been only half-hearted in attacking his uncle’s property,
and it required the persuasion and presence of the Nuncio to push the
siege to a victorious issue.
Cardinal Rinuncini must have been much impressed by the beauty of the
spot, as later he had scenes of the siege painted on the walls of his
Italian palace.
After some weeks a dam about half a mile from the castle was captured,
but only held a few hours when deserted by its guards, who were hanged
for the offence.
Two pieces of cannon were then directed upon a small outlying castle,
and at the end of two days’ firing Colonel Adams repaired to the place
to see if it could be held any longer. A chance shot at the upper
window mortally wounded him, and being carried out he died that night.
When Muskerry heard this he decided to attack in force, “knowing how
much discouraged they were at the loss of so valiant a person.”
The Irish gradually gained position, and at length the garrison
capitulated for their lives, and the officers their swords, and
returned to Cork by water. This was in 1646.
In 1712 Henry, 8th Earl of Thomond, disposed of his estate, and the
castle passed to the Studdert family, who lived there until the
neighbouring mansion was built.
For some years afterwards it was partly used for a police barrack, and
now it is in the hands of a caretaker.
AUTHORITIES CONSULTED.
MS. Ordnance Survey.
Frost, “History of the County Clare.”
White, “History of Clare.”
O’Donoghue, “Memoirs of the O’Briens.”
B. Adams and M. Adams, “History of the Adams Family.”
Murphy, “Cromwell in Ireland.”
Dwyer, “Diocese of Killaloe.”
Joyce, “Irish Names of Places.”
Gilbert, “Affairs in Ireland, 1641-52” (Apporismical
Discovery of Treasonable Faction).
Gilbert, “History of the Irish Confederation by Richard Bellings.”
Parliamentary Gazetteer.
State Documents.
State Papers.
Proceedings of Royal Society of Antiquaries, Ireland.
Westropp, “Normans in Thomond;” Macnamara, “Inchiquin,
Co. Clare;” Shirley and O’Brien, “Extracts
from the Journal of Thomas Dineley,”
all in _Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries, Ireland_.
Westropp, “On the Churches of County Clare,” in Proceedings of R.I.A.
“Bunratty,” _Dublin Saturday Magazine_.
_CARLOW CASTLE_
The town of Carlow, Catherlough or Catherlogh, is situated on the banks
of the Barrow, five and a half miles south-by-west of Castledermot near
the junction of the above river with the Burren. The name signifies
“the city on the lake,” but the sheet of water from which it derived
its name has disappeared.
The castle stands on a slight eminence to the west of the town on the
east bank of the river, where it commanded the ford.
The present ruins consist of two round towers, and the western wall,
which measures about 105 feet in length and some 70 feet in height. One
of the towers is joined to this structure, and a small portion of the
north and south walls adhere to both turrets respectively.
The doors were remarkably low and narrow, and light was admitted almost
entirely by loopholes.
In Thomas Dineley’s quaint diary he states that the fortress was built
of freestone, and a picture in the same work represents it with gables
and a high-pitched roof. It is flanked by round towers and has many
tall chimneys. It appears to be surrounded by a low battlemented wall,
and to have numerous little out-houses.
Like so many castles in Ireland, local tradition ascribes its erection
to King John, but Eva, Strongbow’s wife, Isabel, their daughter, Hugh
le Bigod, 4th Earl of Norfolk, and Bellingham, Lord Deputy of Ireland,
have been mentioned by other authorities. Ryan, in his history of
Carlow, deals with the likelihood of each claim, and thinks that it
was most probably built by Hugh de Lacy. He is said to have erected it
about 1180, but the architecture is rather that of the beginning of the
thirteenth century.
The castle is mentioned in the charter of William, Earl Marshal.
In 1283 we find the repairing of the old hall, kitchen, and tower among
the accounts of Roger le Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, in whose possession
it then was. Among the items of expenditure are 700 nails and canvas,
which were probably for the roofing of the great hall, which was
covered with wooden shingles, and seems to have been difficult to keep
in repair.
[Illustration: CARLOW CASTLE.]
Carlow Castle was at this time the centre of government. The courts
were held in the hall mentioned, and the Exchequer House was probably
situated in one of the towers. The income of the lordship was £750 a
year.
After all this expenditure, however, when the Earl’s possessions
passed to the Crown in 1306, the castle and hall were so ruined that no
value was placed upon them.
J. de Bonevill, of his Majesty’s Castle of Carlow, was appointed
seneschal of Carlow and Kildare in 1310 to put down the robberies and
outrages in the country.
It is stated that the castle was seized in 1397 by Donald MacArt
Kavanagh, the MacMorrough, but the authority is not considered very
reliable.
In 1494 James Fitzgerald, brother to the Earl of Kildare, having gone
into rebellion, seized the castle and hoisted his standard on its
battlements. Sir Edward Poynings marched to Carlow, and after a siege
of ten days recovered the fortress.
Carlow Castle was in the hands of Thomas, 10th Earl of Kildare, better
known as the “Silken Thomas,” during his rebellion in 1535. After his
imprisonment in 1537 Lord (James) Butler, eldest son of the Earl of
Ossory, appealed to the Crown for compensation for having defended the
Castles of Carlow and Kilkea, “standing on the marches,” close to Irish
territory. He was granted his expenses, and appointed constable of both
castles.
At the same time the Deputy wrote to the Lord Privy Seal advising him
to let the King keep the “manors of Carlagh, Kylea, and Castledermont”
in his hands to prevent Lord Ossory and his son from becoming too
powerful.
Sir Robert Hartpole applied for the custodianship of the fortress in
1567, it being at that time in possession of Frances Randall, widow of
its late keeper.
Rory Oge O’More, Chieftain of Leix, burned the town and Sir Robert
Hartpole made a sally from the castle with fifty men and released
Harrington and Cosby, who were his prisoners, but O’More escaped in the
dark.
Oueen Elizabeth desired the Lord Deputy to exchange some of the crown
lands with Henry, Earl of Kildare, for the castle and lands of Carlow
in 1589. During the unfortunate Essex’s rule in Ireland, in 1598 to
1600 the Queen’s warders held the fortress, but the Kavanaghs laid the
surrounding country waste.
By the State Papers of 1604 the manor of Carlow was granted to Donagh,
Earl of Thomond, with the exception of the castle, of which, however,
he and his son were made constables. The following is taken from a
document setting forth the conditions of the grant:--
“In all works made within the castle, the inhabitants of Carlow are to
find six workmen or labourers daily, during the said work, at their
own expense; also each tenant and cottager to weed the demesne corn
yearly for three days, and a woman out of every house in Carlow to bind
the sheaves for one day; each tenant and cottager to cut wood for the
use of the castle for three days in summer, and each of them having
a draught horse to draw the wood to the castle for three days, also
to draw the corn out of the fields to the area of the said castle for
three days; to give one cartload of wood, and one truss of straw at
Christmas and Easter.”
Shortly after this the castle and bawn was granted to Sir Charles
Wilmot.
Five hundred English were besieged in the castle in 1642, and were in
a starving condition when relieved by Sir Patrick Wemys, who had been
despatched to their relief by the Earl of Ormond. The rebels burned the
town and fled at his approach.
In 1647 the King’s garrison was so hard pressed that the Earl of Ormond
borrowed £60 for its relief, and forwarded it by Major Harman, but the
fifty men who came to reinforce the garrison could not get in, as the
stronghold was closely invested. The siege lasted about a month, and
then the castle surrendered.
In Dr. Jones’ diary he states that the Cromwellian army arrived before
the castle on the 18th of March, 1649. That the garrison of two hundred
men refused to surrender it until the battery played on the place, and
preparations were made for storming.
The next day the castle was surrendered, and two companies left to
garrison it. The officers in command being Colonel Hewson, Sir T.
Jones, and Colonel Shelburn.
Again we learn that Ireton arrived to take the castle on July 2, 1650,
and that he spent the whole day in preparing for the attack. The troops
encamped on the Queen’s County side of the river, the field still being
pointed out. They had to erect a temporary bridge of ropes, hurdles and
straw to cross the river, and the soldiers passed over one by one.
In Edmund Ludlow’s “Memoirs” he describes the place as “a small castle,
with a river running under its walls,” and ascribes its importance to
the fact of the neighbourhood being in sympathy with the garrison.
Just before sunset Ireton sent a letter to the governor offering terms
to the defenders if they surrendered. The officer he sent returned to
say Ireton should have an answer the next morning.
Accordingly, Captain Bellew sent a courteous reply to him asking for a
truce of three days, so that he might communicate with the Bishop of
Dromore. This was granted, and Ireton went on to Waterford, leaving Sir
Hardress Waller in command.
After a short cannonade he took the town, and the castle surrendered
upon articles. The garrison received a safe convoy to Lea Castle, and a
pass of ten days to reach Athlone.
In Carte’s “Life of Ormond,” he attributes the castle’s loss to
treachery, but except in a local tradition this does not appear.
It is said that the garrison running short of water sent an old woman
to the river to fetch some, but that she was taken prisoner by some of
the soldiers, and brought to the hostile camp. She was promised her
life and a reward if on the following night she would show by a torch
on the battlements the position of the stairway where the walls were
thinnest. The legend runs she fulfilled the conditions and that, the
cannonade at once beginning, she was the first to lose her life through
her own treachery.
The manor passed from the Earl of Thomond’s family, on account of an
unredeemed mortgage, to a Mr. Hamilton, M.P., who, in 1729, brought
his case before Parliament for having been deprived of the castle yard
during the time of privilege.
The castle was leased in 1814 to a Dr. Middleton. This gentleman
intended to convert it into a lunatic asylum, and endeavoured to
enlarge the windows and lessen the thickness of the walls by the then
little known process of blasting. The results were disastrous. One
morning, at about nine o’clock, while the workmen were fortunately at
breakfast, the huge pile began slowly to totter to its fall.
An eye-witness who had time to escape from the threatened destruction
said: “After viewing the portentous and amazing nodding of the towers,
the immense pile gradually disparted into vast masses, which broke with
difficulty into fragments less mighty.”
AUTHORITIES CONSULTED.
J. Ryan, “History of County Carlow.”
Brewer, “Beauties of Ireland.”
State Documents.
State Papers.
Book of Howth, Carew MSS.
Parliamentary Gazetteer.
Lord Walter Fitzgerald, “Kilkea Castle,”
in _Journal of Kildare Archæological Society_.
R. Malcomson, “Cromwell at Carlow”; J. O’Meagher,
“Diary of Dr. Jones”; E. Shirley, “Extracts
from Journal of Thomas Dineley”; and J. Mills,
“Accounts of the Earl of Norfolk’s Estates
in Ireland”: all in _Journal of
Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland_.
MS. Ordnance Survey of Ireland.
_CARRICKFERGUS CASTLE_
It is popularly believed that Carrickfergus derived its name from
a king called Fergus having been lost there in a storm about
320 B.C., whose body was washed up on the rocky peninsular
where the castle stands. The name is, however, more likely to be a
corruption of _Carraig na Fairge_, signifying “rock of the sea.” It is
often erroneously called Knockfergus in ancient documents. The town
is situated on the northern shore of Belfast Lough, about ten miles
distant from that city.
The castle occupies the whole of a tongue of rock at the south end of
the town, which was at one time surrounded on three sides by water.
The entrance to the fortress on the north, or landward direction,
was by a drawbridge across a dry moat. This was protected by two
semicircular towers, and a portcullis which still exists. Above the
entrance is an aperture, from which missiles and lead could be poured
upon besiegers.
From the gate towers a high curtain follows the formation of the rock
that gradually rises to about 30 feet in height towards the south.
The wall is at present mounted with ordnance used by the militia. The
enclosed space is divided into two yards. The outer one, which is
entered immediately from the gateway, contains a number of buildings
and offices erected in 1802, at which time the castle was used as a
barrack. There are also vaults, which were supposed to be bomb proof.
In the line of wall is situated a small projecting tower known as the
“Lion’s Den.” The inner yard is approached through a round arched
gateway, and contains storehouses and keep. This latter is 90 feet
high, and divided into five storeys. Its western side forms part of the
outer wall. It was formerly entered by a doorway on the second floor,
and a winding stone staircase in the wall of the west angle led to
the top. Loopholes admitted light and air, and there was a small door
at each storey. At present the ascent is made partly by wooden stairs
inside. There are two towers at the summit of the keep, one on the
south-east corner covering the top of the stairway, and the other at
the south-west corner, which was intended for a sentry-box.
On the third storey is the large room known as “Fergus’s Dining-room,”
being 40 feet long by 38 feet broad and over 25 feet high. It was made
into a barrack in 1793, but is now employed as an armoury. Over the
chimneypiece was once a stone inscribed in Irish, which was removed in
1793.
The former draw-well of the castle, 37 feet deep, was situated in the
keep. It was famous for medicinal qualities. The lower portion of the
building is now used as a magazine. The walls of the tower are 9 feet
thick, and the corner stones, or quoins, are of yellowish limestone,
which was probably quarried in the County Down on the opposite shore of
the Lough.