Carrigaphooca Castle
| Carrigaphooca Castle | ||
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 Carrigaphooca Castle from the northeast |
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| Alternative name (s): | Caisleán Charraig a 'Phúca | |
| Creation time : | 1436-1451 | |
| Castle type : | Niederungsburg (Tower House) | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Standing position : | Irish nobility | |
| Construction: | Quarry stone | |
| Place: | Macroom | |
| Geographical location | 51 ° 54 '30.9 " N , 9 ° 1' 42.2" W | |
| Height: | 87 m ASLTemplate: height / unknown reference | |
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Carrigaphooca Castle ( Irish : Caisleán Charraig an Phúca , German: "Castle of the Púca rock") is the ruin of a five-story tower house on a steep cliff above the River Sullane . It is (Irish: Valley of the Reds Gleann na nDearg , dt .: "Valley of the Red"), six kilometers west of Macroom in Ireland's County Cork . The tower dominates the landscape of the townland of Lissacresig ( Lios an Chraosaigh , German: "Fort of Wolverine") in the municipality of Clondrohid ( Cluain Droichead ) and Shanvallyshane ( Seanbhaile Sheáin ) in the municipality of Kilnamartyra ( Cill na Martra ). Carrigaphooca Castle consists of sandstone and limestone and was commissioned by Donal MacCarthy ' of Drisbane Castle , a member of the MacCarthy clan , around 1336-1351. The building is now a National Monument.
Carrigaphooca Castle is in an area rich in Neolithic monuments: a stone circle is two squares east of it. Today the tower is on private property and is no longer open to the public, even though it is owned by the state and administered by the Office of Public Works .
history
Carrigaphooca Castle was built as a defense tower between 1436 and 1451, believed to be for Donal MacCarthy of Drisbane Castle. The MacCarthy family from Muskerry had in the Middle Ages a barony , mainly in the center of County Cork. Although one of the most powerful medieval dynasties in Ireland, they lost large areas in the 13th century that they were trying to regain in the mid-15th century when the castle was built.
Carrigaphooca Castle's location on the Macroom to County Kerry road gave it strategic importance. The MacCarthys were constantly involved in wars of mutual extermination, and the Tower House was often attacked, particularly by Donal Cam O'Sullivan Beare .
Cormac Teige MacCarthy , Lord of Blarney Castle , took refuge in the Tower House after he sided with the Irish during the 1601 Siege of Kinsale . He stayed there until Queen Elizabeth I of England pardoned him after writing her a personal letter of apology.
In 1602 the Tower House was attacked and taken by Donal Cam O'Sullivan Beare and another member of the great MacCarthy family. After a long siege, their forces broke through the outer wall and burned down the entrance door on the north facade. The defense attorneys surrendered and were given free retreat.
description
The five-story tower is simple in design and sits on a steep, high, jagged rock, making it difficult for attackers to approach. The chamber on the ground floor is illuminated by small, off-center windows, and next to it is a straight stone staircase with 11 steps leading along the wall to the first floor. A spiral staircase runs from the 2nd to the 4th floor . A total of 54 steps lead up. Even if the ground floor of most contemporary tower houses was usually completely dark, the first floor of Carrigaphooca Castle has three windows with deep soffits that give the impression of unusually thick walls. The narrow windows are accessible to birds, especially crows , who have dumped entire layers of twigs there since the tower was in ruins.
A window on the east facade on the 2nd floor opposite the entrance has been preserved. Like the remains of another window, this one contains a simple window head with a lintel. Carrigaphooca Castle does not have an open fireplace, which, according to the Heritage Unit , indicates that it was "built with protection rather than comfort in mind." According to the writer O'Brien , Carrigaphooca Castle was "a very grand building at the time (...), must have provided considerable security for the besieged and represented a rather difficult task for the besiegers".
The top floor could also have housed living rooms and possibly an open fireplace. The windows in the north and south walls are significantly larger than on any other floor and offer panoramic views of the surrounding valley, as well as the Killarney Paps and the Mullaghanish in the distance.
The tower once belonged to two outer defensive walls, which were low and of which no trace is preserved today. It contains the remains of two corner turrets on opposite wall ledges. They appear as protruding stone boxes with slits that the defenders used as protection when they shot down at the attackers. There is a single room on the first floor, which presumably served as a living room for the guards. The beams of the wooden ceiling rested on limestone brackets that are still visible today .
In the 1970s, the Office of Works had the property restored and added a staircase over the rock that provides access to the entrance to the tower. During the restoration, a tourelle with a narrow staircase was added that gave access to the unprotected roof walkway. In the mid-1980s, however, this access was blocked by a gate for security reasons.
literature
- Peter Harbison : Guide to the Naional Monuments in the Republic of Ireland Gill and Macmillan, Dublin 1992 ISBN 0-7171-1956-4 p. 52
Individual evidence
- ↑ West Cork rich in Spooktacular Creepy Tales . In: The Southern Star . October 29, 2017. Retrieved June 26, 2018.
- ↑ a b c d e Barry O'Brien: Macroom: A Chronicle, No. 1 . AbeBooks, 1990. p. 31.
- ↑ Barry O'Brien: Macroom: A Chronicle, No. 1 . AbeBooks, 1990. p. 30.
- ^ Carrigaphooca Stone Circle in Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland . Society of Antiquaries, Dublin 1919.
- ↑ Heritage Unit of Cork County Council: Heritage Castles of County Cork . Carraig Print, 2017. p. 96.
- ↑ Healy, 1998. pp. 27-29.
- ↑ a b c d e Heritage Unit of Cork County Council: Heritage Castles of County Cork . Carraig Print, 2017. p. 95.
- ↑ Castles of Munster: Carrigaphooca, Cork . geograph.org.uk. Retrieved June 26, 2018.
- ↑ a b c d Barry O'Brien: Macroom: A Chronicle, No. 1 . AbeBooks, 1990. p. 32.
- ^ O'Murchadah, 1993. p. 223.
- ↑ Barry O'Brien: Macroom: A Chronicle, No. 1 . AbeBooks, 1990. p. 33.
- ↑ Denis Power: Archaeological inventory of County Cork . Volume 3: Mid Cork, 9467 . ColorBooks, 1997. ISBN 0-7076-4933-1 . P. 361.
