Landmark Local Architecture

Stand-out Stones: architecture in landmark stonework

Dysert Aenghusa, Croom, Co. Limerick

Croom Castle, rising once sheer over a bend of the N20

Supporting Acts, Kilmallock Priory

Fallen Drum, Kilmallock Priory

Rockstown Castle, Ballyneety Note the narrow defensive slits rising through four upper floors, and machicolation high above the doorway.

Rockstown took itself seriously, it seems, and was no mere status statement as some of the tower houses were.

Not to be sneezed at: First Fruits churches and their Gothic spires Above left, Bruree, Co. Limerick Above right: Caherconlish, Co. Limerick

Mungret Monastic Church

We have now hooked NW towards the estuary where, just after Mungret, we pick up the N69 for Clarina-Ballybrown.

Another old First Fruits church at Kilkeedy hard by Clarina pictured here below is long a ruin, and even the successor building seen on the far left is now a private residence, but the proximity of both adds interest to the setting. Note also, to the right of the picture, abutting the main structure, what is thought to be the ruin of an even earlier church.

The titled landowning families of the area, Massy and Monsell, have their monuments and mausolea here.

on the seventh of January in each year at the foot of this cross an alms will be given to twenty poor widows in memory of ANNA MARIA MONSELL January 7th 1855 (a pledge honoured discreetly into modern times by a local merchant) Monsell memorial cross, Tervoe, Clarina, Co. Limerick

nearby: Carrigogunnell Castle

The keep, Carrigogunnell

upside-down staircase, Carrigogunnell, a result of the demolition by gunpowder in 1691

as the shoreline would have looked in 1691

Gate lodge of the former Elm Park estate at Clarina; note the use of red limestone in the stonework pattern.

accreditation: Russ Davies CC BY-SA 2.0

The old schoolhouse, Clarina.

Local signage attributes its age to c.1750. Originally, as a historic B&W photo shows, the two-storey structure had chimney stacks on both gables, but even 1750 seems late for the Jacobean-style brickwork. Howsoever, the interior must certainly have been well heated!

photo: Kildimo Community Council

Ferrybridge, 1780s even today bearing an arterial road, the N69

An even older load-bearer: the bridge over the Maigue at Adare

while in Adare: the Augustinian friary cloister

and the Trinitarian Abbey dovecote oculus

also, the Trinitarian Abbey chapterhouse building

Eerily lofty: the Dunraven mausoleum vault, Adare; apparently empty, its only occupant having been later interred.

Dromore castle and lough, 2km west of Kildimo, off the N69

On the same skyline: tower house ruin at nearby Bolane

above: Dromore from the courtyard below: profile from the South

A fairytale ruin which might, at moderate public expense, be made safe and instructive to visit.

Amid utter interior ruin: the NE tower at Dromore

The remains of the tower at Shanpallas, Pallaskenry (slighted by Sir Hardress Waller in the aftermath of the Cromwellian campaign)

The dovecote at Shannongrove House, nr. Pallaskenry

Curraghchase: memorial pillar and ziggurat folly

Gateway to the arboretum at Curraghcase House: both functional and impressive, but consider the purely fanciful statuary niches adjoining it.

The splendid West gate at Curraghchase; sadly, the pineapple finial on the right of the picture has lately fallen off or been removed.

The waterpark at Ballingarry a creditable development

De Lacey castle, Ballingarry (Miles C. Parkinson, Pinterest)

(turning north)

Killeen church at Cowpark, Kilcornan, just off the N69 note the unusual built-in bell cote (it allowed the bell to be rung from inside)

carved holy-water stoup and chancel window

Shannon embankment at Bushyisland (1870s)

Foreground: pier and slipway at Beagh; in the background: the old 'Turf Pier' (restored in 1993/4)

Beagh pier staircase (1993/4)

Beagh Castle, northern elevation

Beagh Castle, western elevation

Aughinish jetty and Beeves Rock lighthouse, from Ballinvoher Point

Ballysteen Quay (restored)

cashel and rath at Milltown North, Askeaton

Askeaton: mediaeval tower at St Mary's Church

Desmond earldom: keep tower and great hall at Askeaton castle

blind arcade, Great Hall

The Constable's Tower, Askeaton Castle

From the Great Hall: the base of the keep; the constable's tower in the background

Askeaton's Hellfire Club, one of Maurice Craig's Classic Irish Houses of the Middle Size (1976), a volume now itself a classic and a collector's item. The building had two-tiered Venetian windows, on the north and south gables, which feature Craig praised especially. The north window survived until recent years and might have been saved or even rebuilt, had the conservation works, now apparently stalled, begun in time. The south window surviving fragment is visible in this photo.

cloister arcade at Askeaton Franciscan friary, on the Deel estuary

entrance from nave to transept

East Window

Mill on the Deel Askeaton

crossing the Deel: Toomdeely mediaeval hall

A handsomely sculpted bullaun on Boniska strand, Foynes.

Mount Trenchard burial ground, Mary Spring-Rice gravestone inscription: 'the souls of the faithful are in God's hand'

Mount Trenchard burial ground: a Vere O'Brien memorial inscription; the work of the Cork sculptor, Seamus Murphy

A diversion inland: the 'Black Hag' nunnery at Oldabbey, Shanagolden A much maligned lady, probably a religious recluse and herbalist; cailleach dhubh, in any case, is an old term in Irish for a nun.

dovecote at Oldabbey

The splendid memorial shield of the last Knight of Glin old Church of Ireland churchyard, Glin

Glin:

shopfront

corbel console

former hotel entrance door with cobweb fanlight and Art Nouveau relief plasterwork

Lislaughtin Friary, Ballylongford, N.Kerry The shale-like shallow stratification of the local rock would have provided poor foundation material.

Carrigafoyle Castle, Ballylongford Bay.

A large, late 15th cent. tower house rather than a castle: protected on the landward side only by a low curtain-wall with musketry embrasures, seen here—no match for the Elizabethan cannon in 1580.