Tower now remains, often erroneously called Birmingham Tower. This,
as its name implies, is where the royal robe, cap of maintenance,
and other furniture of state were kept. The sword of state is still
preserved there, and also the records which were removed from
Birmingham Tower. The lower portion is the original masonry, but an
upper storey was added when the Chapel Royal was built. The Birmingham
Tower was rendered unsafe by an explosion of gunpowder in Ship Street
and had to be taken down. A lighter structure was erected on the site,
which contains the present kitchen and viceregal supper-room. The other
towers were gradually removed to make room for new buildings.
The Anglo-Irish used to decorate the gate and walls of the castle with
the heads of the slain, and in 1316 some four hundred heads were sent
from Wicklow for this purpose.
The castle did not become a permanent residence of the Viceroy until
1560 by order of Elizabeth, and in 1565 Henry Sydney took up his abode
in it. He also enlarged and beautified it, and placed the State papers
there in safe keeping.
The castle has stood several successful sieges. In 1478 Gerald, 8th
Earl of Kildare, was superseded as Lord Deputy by Lord Grey of Codnor.
He refused to resign, and Keating, Prior of Kilmainham, and Constable
of the Castle, sided with him, and fortified the stronghold against
the new Deputy. He destroyed the drawbridge, and Lord Grey, finding
his numbers too small to force an entrance, returned to England, and
Kildare was shortly afterwards reinstated.
Again, in 1534, young Lord Offaly, known as “Silken Thomas” from
the splendour of his horses’ trappings, hearing a false report that
his father had been treacherously executed in England, returned the
Sword of State to the Council, which he held as Deputy in the Earl of
Kildare’s absence, and commenced hostilities against the castle.
It is said the citizens readily admitted him within the walls of
Dublin. His chief attack was from Ship Street, but the Constable of the
castle getting the thatched houses there set on fire, the besiegers
fell back into Thomas Street.
Lord Offaly having been obliged to commence hostilities against Ossary,
the siege was not carried on with much heart. Many of the arrows sent
into the castle were headless, and others bore letters saying some of
the besiegers were really in sympathy with the King’s party.
Upon the rumour of help from England, the citizens closed the gates and
made prisoners of the attackers.
Lord Thomas hurried back, and at once laid siege to the city itself,
but his force was too small to have any effect.
As he had seized the Dublin children who had been sent to outlying
villages on account of the plague, the citizens agreed to liberate his
party if the little ones were restored. This was done, and shortly
afterwards aid from England quelled the rebellion.
Several exciting escapes have been made by prisoners from the castle.
In 1587 Hugh O’Donnell was confined in one of the gate towers for three
years, when he and a companion managed to escape on to the drawbridge
by a rope. He was, however, treacherously sent back to Dublin by
O’Toole of Castlekevin, upon whose hospitality he had thrown himself.
At this time a partly dry and partly wet moat surrounded Dublin Castle,
and O’Donnell was now imprisoned in the Wardrobe Tower round which the
Poddle flowed. He, however, escaped again the next year through the
water, and, arriving after much hardship at Glenmalure, eventually
reached the North in safety.
In 1697 Lord Delvin was imprisoned in one of the gate towers for taking
part in a conspiracy against the King. The Lord Deputy hearing that he
meditated escape, desired Tristram Ecclesten, Constable of the Castle,
to remove his prisoner from the upper to a lower storey. Not only
did Ecclesten neglect to do this, but he allowed Lord Delvin to have
visitors, who managed to convey him a rope, by which he escaped. Next
year he surrendered himself and was pardoned.
Law Courts and Parliaments have at different times been held in the
castle.
In 1689 King James made a State entry, and stayed one night there after
the battle of the Boyne.
In 1783 St. Patrick’s Hall was built. In 1784 the Viceregal Lodge was
bought, and since then the State apartments of the castle have only
been used during the Dublin season.
AUTHORITIES CONSULTED.
O’Donovan, “Annals of the Four Masters.”
Calendar of Irish State Papers in England.
Wright, “Historical Guide to Dublin.”
Harris, “History of Dublin.”
Marquis of Kildare, “Earls of Kildare.”
Brewer, “Beauties of Ireland.”
M’Gee, “History of Ireland.”
Joyce, “History of Ireland.”
Gilbert, “Castle of Dublin” (_University Magazine_).
Haverty, “Ireland.”
Collins, “Sydney State Letters.”
_DUNDANIEL CASTLE_
This castle is situated on the western margin of the Barony of
Kinnelea, in the townland of Skevanish, County Cork. It stands on the
left bank of the Bandon River, in the angle formed by the influx of
the Brinny. It is half a mile above Innishannon, and three miles below
Bandon.
The present name seems, from ancient documents, to be a corruption of
Dundanier, or a word of the same phonetic sound. Different suggestions
have been put forward as to the probable meaning of the original
name, including “Dane’s Fort,” or “the fort of the foreigner,” and
“the fort of the two rivers.” This latter would be a very appropriate
appellation, its south and west sides being protected by the converging
streams.
Nothing now remains of the castle save the keep, which measures 32 feet
east and west, and 44 feet north and south.
The entrance is in a ruined state on the east side, and between it
and the river on the south the masonry has almost wholly disappeared.
The walls on the north and west are 6 feet thick, while on the south
and east they measure 8 feet, although these sides have otherwise
apparently less provision for defence.
Mr. Herbert Gillman gives a most interesting suggestion regarding this
fact. He says that in all probability a winding stair was situated
in the thickness of the walls at the south-east angle, the building
of which has now disappeared, and that this stairway terminated at
the hall or chief apartment of the castle usually occupied by the
castellan. Upon the north-east angle of the tower is now the remains
of a ruined turret, and Mr. Gillman thinks this is most likely to have
been the protection for the egress to the _allur_ or battlemented walk,
which was reached from the main chamber by a second stairway in this
part of the wall. By such an arrangement no watchman could leave his
post of duty without passing through the room in question, and thus a
greater protection would be secured.
We learn from the Lismore papers that the top of the fortress was
reached by a very narrow “pair of stairs.”
The tower is about 55 or 60 feet high. The stone arch which is usual
in such buildings covering the internal space, is in this instance
situated singularly high up, being immediately beneath the top storey,
and there is no mark on the lower walls to show that a second ever
existed. The ground floor was used for defence as well as for the usual
store, and above it beams, on stone corbels, supported two oak floors
between the basement and the arch. Light and air were chiefly admitted
by long openings splayed for archery. It is interesting to note also
the later apertures introduced after musketry superseded the bow and
arrow.
Of the former outworks of the fortress little trace remains. On the
east of the tower, at about a hundred yards distant, is what an old
inhabitant stated to be a disused channel of the River Manghane or
Brinny. This fact is borne out, and contradicted, respectively by
several maps. The fact that the field lying west of the river is still
called “Castle Garden” seems to point out that the channel of the
Brinny has been changed. Also the north and west walls of the fortress
have the greater number of crenellated openings, which show that they
were considered the most vulnerable sides.
The Down Survey map of 1656 shows a dwelling-house to the east of the
castle.
In the mortar on the inside surface of the arch, the marks of the twigs
are still visible which formed part of the temporary support used when
building. The mortar has much less lime than is usual in such work, no
doubt from the distance it would have had to be brought.
These markings, as well as the general architecture, indicate that the
date 1476, which is usually stated as the time of its erection, is
likely to be accurate.
It is supposed to have been built by Barry Oge, or Barry the Younger,
whose family displaced the O’Mahons in this district, being a
descendant of Philip de Barry, the Anglo-Norman invader.
The lands of Innishannon were granted to the Barry Oge family either in
Henry III.’s or Henry IV.’s reign.
In 1449 Barry Oge forfeited the confidence of the Crown, and his lands
were seized for the King. But a letter of the time states that he was
there “upon the King’s portion, paying his Grace never a penny of
rent.” At this time wars at home and abroad had weakened the English
power in Ireland, and it is most likely that Barry Oge built Dundaniel
Castle to protect the lands he was holding in spite of the forfeiture.
In 1548 mention is made of a pirate called Colle coming to Kinsale in
a pinnace and marrying Barry Oge’s aunt, living in his castle, and not
allowing any one to enter Kinsale. Probably this castle was Dundaniel,
where the honeymoon was being spent, but the Barry Oge himself does not
seem to have shared the odium in which his uncle-in-law was held.
Pirates were a very grave trouble to the south coast for many years
following.
After the Desmond rebellion Barry Oge’s land was again forfeited in
1588, and bestowed upon MacCarthy Reagh, and in 1599 “Downdandier” is
referred to as being in his possession.
After the siege of Dunboy Castle, in 1602, Sir George Carew relates
having sent some companies of foot soldiers to MacCarthy’s Castle of
Dundaniel, to remain there until the army was leaving Munster.
Eight years later the estate was purchased by the East India Company
for the sum of £7,000. They constructed a dock, where they built two
ships, and colonised three villages with some three hundred English
settlers.
They garrisoned the castle with “four light horse, six corslets, and
ten muskets, trained at the Company’s charge.”
But this form of industrious innovation was not at all to the liking of
the native inhabitants, and they so harassed the company’s workers that
they were obliged to appeal to the Government for protection in 1613.
This does not appear to have been accorded, as a second petition in the
same year asks for leave to place three or four pieces of ordnance in
the castle for defence against the “wylde Irish.”
The Company, still receiving no Government aid, relinquished their
enterprise. In the “Castle Garden” slag, like the refuse of ironworks
is still found, which is most likely the remains of the East India
Company’s industry.
After this the MacCarthys seem to have again taken possession of the
castle, and a scion of the old house, named Teige O’Connor, occupied
Dundaniel upon the breaking out of hostilities in 1642.
This O’Connor seems to have been a man of unqualified barbarity. A MS.
in Trinity College records a most unwarrantable attack by him on five
peaceful fishermen who were whipping the rivers near the stronghold. By
his orders they were seized by some of the garrison and carried within
the castle. Four of them were hanged at once, and the fifth offered
£10 for his life. This was accepted, and some of them accompanied
him to his house to receive it. Upon finding where he kept his money,
they seized the whole of it, amounting to £35, and then hanged the
unfortunate owner.
John Langton, writing to the Earl of Cork, gives a most graphic
description of the assault upon Dundaniel Castle on the 20th of April,
1642, when the English forces marched from Bandon under the command of
Lord Kinalmeaky and Captain Aderly of Innishannon.
It appears a party of rebels had seized some cattle and brutally killed
four children and wounded a fifth, who were minding them near the town.
The distracted parents traced the crime to the garrison of Dundaniel
Castle, “neere the ould iron worke.” So horse and foot marched out,
recovered the cattle save one animal, and attacked the castle.
Three of the besiegers were killed and six wounded by shot and stone
from the fortress, but the musketeers posted themselves round the
castle and on the neighbouring hill, and kept up a fire of small shot
so that each of the defenders who looked out was killed.
They next tried to drive in the door with sledges, and these failing
they set it on fire, but they had to undermine the wall in the
neighbourhood before the fire became sufficient to make the door yield.
They rushed into the lower room, and the enemy fled to the top of the
castle above the vault.
The attacking party then loaded themselves with corn and oatmeal which
was stored in the lower chambers, and having provided themselves with
plunder they set fire to the wooden floors of the lower rooms. Night
came on, and they returned to Bandon with their booty.
Next morning they came back to view the scene, and found that the
rebels (who had escaped the fire which did not penetrate the vault),
had let themselves down from the battlements in the night time by means
of ropes and other contrivances. Many lay dead on the top of the
castle, and round about it.
The victors found four or five muskets and fowling pieces, some brass
and iron pots and pans, and some money hidden in the oatmeal bins.
About forty of the enemy escaped and joined the Roches. They were
pursued, and an encounter took place where over a hundred were killed,
but the chiefs escaped.
After this the MacCarthy property was confiscated, and Dundaniel
Castle was granted to Richard Earl of Cork, by whom it was leased to
various tenants, and through whom it descended to the present Duke of
Devonshire.
AUTHORITIES CONSULTED.
H. Gillman, “The Castle of Dundanier,
miscalled Dundaniel”
(_Cork Archæological Society’s Journal_).
Parliamentary Gazetteer.
Calendar of State Papers.
G. Bennett, “History of Bandon.”
Grosart, “Lismore Papers.”
_DUNDRUM CASTLE, COUNTY DOWN_
Situated three and a half miles north by east of Newcastle, County
Down, this donjon fortress commands an extensive view of Dundrum Bay
and the surrounding district of Lecale. The castle was built on the
site of an older fortification known as _Dun Rudhraidhe_, or Rury’s
Fort, which is said to have been the scene of the great feast given by
Bricrin of the Poisoned Tongue, to King Connor MacNessa and the Red
Branch Knights at which he induced them to make war on one another,
as is chronicled in “The Book of the Dun Cow.” The present village of
Dundrum (Dundroma, signifying the fort on the ridge) lies between the
castle and the shore, while to the east of the fortress are the ruins
of an Elizabethan mansion erected by a former owner of the castle.
The circular keep or donjon is built upon a rock, and has an external
diameter of some 45 feet, the walls of which are 8 feet thick above the
projecting base. The tower at present stands about 50 feet in height.
The cellar below is hewn out of the rock on which the building was
erected, and is said at one time to have contained 200 tuns of Spanish
wine belonging to O’Neill.
To the east of the entrance is a circular newel stair 3 feet 3 inches
in diameter, constructed in the thickness of the wall and leading to
the parapet. From this there are openings at each storey, and it is
most likely from the position of the offsets in the wall that the
floors were of wood supported on beams, the holes for the latter being
still visible at different levels.
Round this tower was the courtyard or bawn, encircled by a high wall 4
and 5 feet thick, which was again protected by a fosse or moat, still
to be seen on the north and west sides. The bawn was occupied by the
buildings for the retainers, and perhaps the family in times of peace,
and is of a roughly circular form about 150 feet across.
[Illustration: DUNDRUM CASTLE, CO. DOWN.]
South-east of the donjon, in the line of wall, are the two ruined
towers which protected the barbican gate, the corbel blocks of which
still remain over the archway, and originally supported the defences of
the gateway. From these, numerous rebels were hanged in the rebellion
of 1798.
The castle was built of stone quarried to form the fosse, mixed with
land stones of the district. Little has been done to alter the twelfth
or thirteenth century architecture, except the opening out of windows.
On the side of the ruined manor the outer fortifications would seem to
have been levelled to make terraced gardens to the later dwelling.
It is generally supposed that Dundrum Castle was built by John de
Courcy at the end of the twelfth century for the Knights Templars,
after his daring conquest of Ulster in 1177 with only a force of about
a thousand men. The stronghold remained in the possession of the order
(which was bound by vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience) until
the suppression of the Knights Templars in 1313. It then passed into
the hands of the Prior of Down, and is mentioned by Archdall in his
“Monasticon Hibernicum” as a religious house. Upon the abolition of
the monasteries the reversion of the castle and manor, with a yearly
rent of £6 13s. 4d. reserved out of it, was granted to Gerald, Earl of
Kildare.
In 1516, however, it appears to have been in the possession of O’Neill,
who fortified it, with a boast he would hold it against the Earl of
Kildare, at the same time sending to the King of France to come and
help him to drive the English out.
The following year Gerald, 9th Earl of Kildare, and Lord Deputy,
marched into Lecale and took Dundrum by storm, but it seems almost
immediately to have reverted to the Magennises, who repaired it. In
1538 it was retaken along with seven other castles by the English,
commanded by Lord Deputy Grey, who says: “I took another castell,
being in M’Geeon’s countrie called Dundrome, which, I assure your
lordship, as it standeth is one of the strongest holds that ever I saw
in Ireland, and most commodious for defence of the whole countrey of
Lecayll, both by sea and land, for the said Lecayll is invironed round
about with sea, and no way to go by land into the said countrey but
only bye the said Castle of Dundrome.”
After this the castle appears to have remained in the hands of the
Crown for a few years. In 1551, we learn from the records of the Privy
Council that Prior Magennis was seized and imprisoned in Dundrum
Castle by Roger Broke without order of law. Six years later Lord Deputy
Sussex asked that Lecale with the Castle of Dundrum might be granted to
him in fee-farm for ever.
But again in 1565 it was occupied by the great Shane O’Neill, who
placed his own ward in it for defence, and the Magennises (with whom
O’Neill was intimately connected) were in possession of the stronghold
in 1601, when Phelim Magennis surrendered it to Lord Mountjoy.
O’Neill is said to have been a constant visitor at the castle while it
was possessed by the Magennises, Lords of Iveagh, and after a night of
revelry would indulge in a strange kind of bath, by being buried to his
neck in the sands on the shore of the bay.
Four years subsequently to the stronghold passing into the hands of the
Crown, Lord Cromwell was commissioned to be governor and commander of
Lecale and the tower and castle of Dundrum.
In 1636, Lord Cromwell’s grandson, Thomas, Lord Lecale and 1st Earl of
Ardglass, sold it to Sir Francis Blundell, from whom it descended by
marriage to its present owner, the Marquis of Downshire.
Sir James Montgomery fought the Irish on the shore at the foot of the
castle hill 1642, and placed a garrison in the fortress to protect
the district. At this time Dundrum belonged to the Blundells, who
afterwards built the now ruined mansion adjoining, and the ancient
stronghold was finally dismantled in 1652 by the order of Oliver
Cromwell.
AUTHORITIES CONSULTED.
Phillips, “Dundrum Castle.”
Praeger, “Guide to County Down.”
Joyce, “Irish Names of Places.”
Grose, “Antiquities of Ireland.”
Harris, “History of County Down.”
Calendar of State Papers.
“Notes to Sir Henry Sidney’s Memoir,” and
“Facsimiles of Signatures of
Irish Chieftains” in _Ulster
Journal of Archæology_.
_DUNDRUM CASTLE, COUNTY DUBLIN_
This fortress was one of the long chain of the Pale castles which
defended the metropolis, but having been inhabited until the beginning
of the nineteenth century it is in a much better state of preservation
than most of these old buildings.
It is situated about three miles south of Dublin on a rise of ground
above the Dundrum River, a tributary of the Dodder, at the junction of
the Ballinteer and Enniskerry roads.
It is probable that the castle was built on the site of a more ancient
stronghold, as Dundrum signifies “the fort on the ridge.”
The principal ruin of the present castle is a keep which is
battlemented in a slightly projecting form on the south-east, while the
south-west wall rises in rather a high gable. The building is oblong
in shape, and the entrance, which is on the south side, is evidently
of more modern construction. A gate now gives egress to the interior,
which is occupied by a flower bed.
Two large windows on the ground floor also point to later alterations,
especially as they occur simultaneously with the remains of earlier
openings.
The stairs are likely to have been situated in the south-west side.
There are numerous small chambers and passages in the thickness of the
walls.
Of the three fireplaces in the north-west wall that on the ground
floor is the largest, measuring 9 feet long by 5 feet high, and as
the flagstones of the hearth are covered by some inches of gravel its
height was once greater. At the back of the fireplace and slightly to
one side is an aperture about two feet square, which is framed in cut
stone, and was probably used as an oven.
On the south-west end of the keep are the ruins of a smaller building
several storeys high, which is connected with the main building by a
square topped doorway. The dividing wall is nearly 6 feet in thickness.
Both buildings are largely covered with plaster, and on the south-east
the keep has been partly rough cast.
The situation of a third building can be seen adjoining the tower on
the north-east side, where the pitch of its roof may be traced about
three-fourths of the way up, but very little of the walls remain.
The castle is partly covered with ivy.
The fortress seems to have been built soon after the Norman invasion,
and as the lands of Dundrum were held by Hugh de Clahull, it was
probably erected for their defence. It subsequently passed to the
Fitzwilliams of Merrion, from whom it descended to the Earls of
Pembroke, and it forms at present part of the Pembroke estate.
Robert le Bagod, ancestor of the Fitzwilliams, had license to convey
the manor of Dundrum to his son William, and in 1332 Thomas Fitzwilliam
was found seized of the lands round.
From this time on it is likely the fortress was occupied by cadets of
the Fitzwilliam family.
In 1542 Sir Thomas Fitzwilliam was in possession of the manor, and
in 1616 his grandson Thomas, afterwards first Viscount Fitzwilliam,
recovered the lands of Dundrum and Ballinteer, with the castle and
water mill.
His brother William, who had married Archbishop Ussher’s widow, lived
at Dundrum Castle about this time.
The building was slated and in good repair during the Commonwealth. It
is stated to have had three hearths and a barn, with a garden.
It was tenanted by a Mr. Isaac Dobson during the reign of Charles II.
He was a Nonconformist, and probably a trader in Dublin. When James II.
came to the throne he left the country, and was attainted by Parliament
in 1689.
His son, who was a bookseller, succeeded him at the castle. He greatly
improved the grounds, and when he died in 1720 he left the use of the
castle to his wife for her life, after which it went to his sons.
The last Dobson who lived in it died in 1762, and when Mr. Cooper
visited it in 1780 it was most likely inhabited by a farmer, who was
then cutting down the grove of ash which grew between it and the river.
He speaks of the inhabited part as a modern addition to which older
remains were adjoining. He states that the principal entrance was from
the courtyard by stone steps.