Kilcrea Castle

Kilcrea Castle is a ruined 15th century towerhouse and bawn located to the west of Kilcrea Friary near Ovens in County Cork, Ireland. The ruins are mostly hidden by a thick copse of trees.

Kilcrea Castle
Native name
Irish: Caisleán Chill Chré
Coordinates51.865°N 8.718°W / 51.865; -8.718
AreaCounty Cork, Ireland
BuiltMid-15th century[1]
Built forMacCarthys of Muskerry
Architectural style(s)Fortified tower house and bawn
Governing bodyOn private land
Kilcrea Castle in Ireland

Unlike the Friary, which is owned and maintained by the National Monuments Service of Ireland,[2] the ruins are on privately owned lands, the land immediate to, and including the ruins themselves, currently serving as a cattle farm. The castle is listed as a Protected Structure by Cork County Council.[3]

History

The castle was completed by 1465 by Cormac Láidir Mór (or More), chief of the McCarthy clan and builder of Blarney Castle and Carrignamuck Tower House, in a marshy area over an old fort possibly dating to the Bronze Age.[4]

The overall structure was built facing north (towards the River Bride), with the main five-story tower house on the western side and the bawn on the eastern side towards the friary.[5] The remains of a three-story tower anchor the southeast corner of the bawn. Text from the 1840s state that the bawn was enclosed with two square towers,[6] however any physical evidence of a second tower on the bawn is lost to the undergrowth.

In the mid-19th century a cutting of the now disused Cork and Macroom Railway line was built through the moat of the castle on the northern side.

  • Inner castle courtyard
  • Southeast tower
  • Castle battlements

References
  1. "Kilcrea Castle - Description". Gazetteer of Irish Antiquities. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  2. "National Monuments in State Care: Ownership & Guardianship" (PDF). National Monuments Service. Republic of Ireland. 4 March 2009. p. 6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 May 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  3. "Cork County Council - Record of Protected Structures (Structure number 00555)" (PDF). Cork County Council. p. 29. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 13 September 2014.
  4. Westropp, Thomas Johnson (1908). "The Monastery of St. Brigid, Kilcrea, and the Castle of the MacCarthys". Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society. Cork Historical and Archaeological Society: 159,220.
  5. John Windele (1840). Historical and Descriptive Notices of the City of Cork. p. 230.
  6. Coyne, J. Stirling; Willis, N. P. (1841). "The Scenery and Antiquities of Ireland". Retrieved 20 August 2014.
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