Irish Castles, Counties Leitrim & Fermanagh
Irelandseye.com continues along the north-west coast, as our tour of Ireland's castles continues to County Leitrim, into County Fermanagh.
County Leitrim
PARKE'S CASTLE
Rising from the tranquil waters of Lough Gill, this attractive Plantation castle has recently undergone an extensive restoration. It now appears much as it did around 1610 when Robert Parker completed his fortified manor house on the site of a 15th-century O'Rorke castle. The walls of the original bawn were retained, but the O'Rorke tower house in the centre was demolished and its stones used to build the three-storey manor. This has now had its window glazing reinstated, while local craftsmen have successfully restored the timber stair, as well as the mortice and tenon oak roof. One of two round flankers forms one end of the manor, while at the other end stands a gatebuilding with an arched entrance leading into the enclosure. There is also a postern gate and a sally port, though there are no flankers on the lake shore probably as the water level was 10 feet higher in the 17th century and lapped up against the bawn walls. No doubt these waters fed the moat that formerly surrounded the bawn. Excavations in the 1970s revealed the base of the O'Rorke tower house beneath the courtyard cobbles and this is now exposed to view. It was in this tower that Francisco de Cuellar, the shipwrecked Armada officer, was entertained by Brian O'Rorke. In later years de Cuellar was to write of his host: "Although this chief is a savage, he is a good Christian and an enemy of the heretics and is always at war with them." He was eventually captured, indicted and executed for high treason in London in 1591. The Parkers, who subsequently acquired his confiscated property, remained at Newtown, or Leitrim Castle - as it was formerly known - until the end of the 17th century, when it was deserted.6.5 km (4 miles) NW of Dromahaire on the Sligo Road beside Lough Gill. NGR: G 783354.
County Fermanagh
CASTLE BALFOUR
When Captain Nicholas Pynnar visited Lisnaskea in 1619 he found "great numbers of men at work" building a 70-footsquare bawn and a "castle of the same length, of which one half is built two storeys high, and is to be three storeys and a half high". No definite trace of the bawn survives, but the gaunt ruins of the castle, built by the Scottish planter Sir James Balfour on the site of an important Maguire stronghold, still dominate the town. Just inside the entrance lies a timber stair giving access to the great hall on the first floor. On the ground floor are barrel-vaulted service rooms including a kitchen with a big fireplace and circular brick-built oven. The castle was refortified in 1652 by Ludlow, the famous commander-in-chief of Cromwell's Irish armies. It was dismantled during the troubles of 1689 but reoccupied by the Balfours and later passed to the Townleys. The building ceased to be inhabited after a fire in 1803 and was acquired by the Crichtons of Crom in 1821.Lisnaskea. NGR: H 362337.
ENNISKILLEN CASTLE
All roads in Fermanagh converge on Enniskillen, which commands a vital strategic crossing of the Erne between the Upper and Lower lakes. The first castle was built here around 1415 by Hugh "the Hospitable" Maguire but was retaken many times by the O'Donnells, the O'Neills and the English, until wrecked by Niall Garbh O'Donnell in 1602. The castle became the focus of a plantation town after 1607, when William Cole proceeded to build "a fair house upon the foundation of the old castle with other convenient houses for store and munition". This withstood a Jacobite siege in 1690 and remained the Cole family residence until a fire in 1710; the ruined castle was refurbished as a barracks during the 1790s and remained in military occupation until 1950. The bawn had two circular and two rectangular flanker towers, but only the south flanker now survives - the so-called Watergate - one of the most photographed buildings in Ulster. It has a three-storey façade with stepped Irish battlements and a pair of round conical-roofed turrets. As tall turrets are a feature of late 16th-century architecture in Scotland, it has been argued that the Maguires built it in the 1580s using Scottish masons. Most authorities, however, believe the Watergate was constructed around 1616-19, though it is difficult to imagine a planter like Cole, who did not even own the castle until 1620, spending much-needed resources on such a refined architectural feature just to make the castle look more impressive from the water. The castle keep now appropriately houses the regimental museum of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers. On the east side of the complex stands the recently constructed Heritage Centre.Enniskillen. NGR: H 231442.
MONEA CASTLE
Few castle ruins so readily engage the imagination as the picturesquely sited Monea - undoubtedly the most complete and best-preserved of all the Plantation castles of Ulster. Building commenced in 1616 by the Reverend Malcolm Hamilton. Shortly afterwards it was described by Pynnar as "a strong castle of lime and stone being 54 feet long and 20 feet broad". The bawn, comprising "a wall 9 feet in height and 300 feet in circuit" was added shortly before Hamilton was promoted to become Archbishop of Cashel in 1623. Monea's history is less dramatic than nearby Tully. During the 1641 rebellion it was attacked by Rory Maguire, who "slew and murthered eight Protestants" here, but evidently failed to capture the castle. In 1688 it was occupied by Gustavus Hamilton, the Governor of Enniskillen, who had incurred enormous financial losses in the Williamite wars. His greatly impoverished wife and children continued to live at Monea, but had to sell the estate in 1704. A few decades later the castle was gutted by fire and was subsequently abandoned. In the last century "a weird woman named Bell McCabe took her residence in a vault beneath one of the towers" until she was evicted by the proprietor, who feared she "might be found dead on the wretched premises" and that some inquiries might ensue.9.5 km (6 miles) NW of Enniskillen and 1.6 km (1 mile) E of St Molaise's Church. NGR: H 165494.
OLD CROM CASTLE
Romantic ensemble of ruins and sham ruins set in exquisite parkland on the shores of Lough Erne. At the core of the complex are the remains of a castle built in 1611 by a Scottish planter, Michael Balfour, which in 1629 comprised a bawn 61 feet square with walls 15 feet high, two flankers and a house of "lime and stone" 22 feet square. In 1644 it was acquired by the Crichtons, ancestors of the Earls of Erne, and later enlarged so that the dwelling occupied the whole area of the bawn. It successfully withstood two ferocious Jacobite sieges in 1689, but later succumbed to an accidental fire in 1764 and was never rebuilt. Today the remains of the castle comprise two gables and a flanker, with the remainder surviving only as foundations. In the 1830s these ruins were transformed into a picturesque folly with the addition of ruined walls and towers forming a sham bawn. Impressive battlemented terraces were also built around the garden to the south, where the famous pair of 400-year-old yews stand, one male and one female, at the site of the original entrance to the plantation castle garden.Crom Demesne 6.5 km (4 miles) W of Newtownbutler. NGR: H 363238.
TULLY CASTLE
Ireland is full of roofless ruins, but few have had such a tragically brief history as the beautifully sited Plantation castle of Tully. Built between 1612 and 1615 for Sir John Hume, it was gutted and abandoned in the 1641 rebellion. The castle had been surrendered to Rory Maguire on Christmas Eve 1641 by Lady Hume on condition of safe conduct for the local Protestant settlers who had sought refuge with her. However, the "rebels having stripped the inhabitants, except Lady Hume, of all their clothes, imprisoned them in the vaults and cellars" of the castle. The men were bound hand and foot and "thrown into the courtyard where they lay all night". The next day (Christmas Day) the Maguires massacred all sixteen men and sixty-nine women and children, sparing only the Humes. They then pillaged and burnt the castle, which has remained a ruin to this day. The Maguires would have had difficulty investing the castle by force as it was well protected. When the Commissioners visited the place in 1622 they found it had "a bawne of stone and lime 99 feet long, 9 feet broad, 10 feet high, with 4 flankers. There is also within the bawne a strong castle 54 feet long, 19 feet broad, 3 storeys high, covered with thatch." Of this, the stronghouse survives to almost full height, while the bawn wall and its rectangular flankers are ruined except for the north-east side. A ten-year programme of repair followed the acquisition of the castle by the Department of Environment in 1974. Excavation revealed that the bawn was divided up by cobbled paths suggesting the use of this area as a garden. In 1988 formal beds were created within these paths using plants known in Ireland during the 17th century.On the shore of Lough Erne, 5 km (3 miles) N of Derrygonnelly off the Belleek road. NGR: H 186599.
from the Appletree Press title Irish Castles
Click here Irish Castles to buy the newly reformatted book from Amazon.co.uk. The previous edition of Irish Castles is also still available from Amazon.co.uk.
