Page:Archaeologia volume 38 part 1.djvu/194

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170
Observations on the

with corbels in imitation of the earlier examples, and single-light windows, with sloping sides and trefoil-heads, but all evidently imitation work of the sixteenth century.

Bruff Castle is a mere ruin of a house of the fifteenth century, but the vaulted lower story remains, and in the wall of it is a doorway with sloping sides and a flat lintel, exactly like those in the round towers.

Blarney Castle, near Cork, consists of the ruins of two mansions, one a tower-house of the fifteenth century, the other Elizabethan added to the former. The walls of the earlier house are nearly perfect, with the battlements carried on corbels of the usual tongue-shape, the intervals between forming large machicoulis; the alure remains on the top of the wall behind them, and is covered with thin slabs formed into gutters. At one corner is a watch-turret, on the parapet of which is the celebrated "Blarney stone." At another corner, opposite the watch-turret, is a larger turret rising from the ground, at the top of which is the kitchen with the large fireplace and chimney; this turret has a separate battlement and machicoulis at a lower level than the great tower. In this turret there are two rooms under the kitchen, and a separate staircase for servants, and from the room under the kitchen there is a flight of steps leading to the principal apartment in the great tower. In this principal tower the vault is over the second story, and there has been another vault two stories higher, and a fifth story over the upper vault; in this room is a single-light window or loop, with sloping sides after the old fashion. The enceinte has a round tower belonging to the Elizabethan work of the sixteenth century. (See Plate VI.)

Carrigrohan Castle, near Cork, is an oblong tower-house of the sixteenth century much modernised, with bartizans at two of the corners, in which are small round holes for musketry, but carried on machicoulis. The face of the wall projects, and overhangs about six inches in each of the upper stories, perhaps for the purpose of throwing off the wet more effectually. There are remains of outworks and a curtain wall.

Dundrum Castle, in Blackrock, near Cork, is the ruin of a square tower-house of rich and massive work, so much covered with ivy that it is difficult to make out what it has been. It is three stories high, with fireplaces in the two upper ones and a staircase in the wall obliquely. There is a servants' room or turret joined to one side. The doorway and windows are square-headed. It is most probably of the fifteenth century.

Ballinagheah (or the Castle of Sheepstown), near Athenry, co. Galway, a tower-house of the fifteenth century, with alterations of the sixteenth. The