Castle Balfour
Castle Balfour is a ruined castle in the village of Lisnaskea in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland . It stands on the edge of the cemetery , immediately west of the main road. The castle is a State Care Historic Monument and is located in the townland of Castle Balfour Demesne in the District of Fermanagh and Omagh .
history
Castle-skeagh was given as a fief to Lord Michael Balfour by King James I of England and then again to Lord James Balfour of Fife in Scotland in 1620 as part of the colonization of the province of Ulster . In 1618/1619 Captain Nicholas Pynnar reported that Balfour had begun construction at Castle-skeagh. The village of Lisnaskea developed around the castle. In 1652 Castle Balfour was rebuilt and damaged in 1689. The last owner and resident of the castle was James Haire (1737-1833), who leased it from Earl Erne . James Haire and his family left the castle after a fire started in 1803. The lessee's mother, Mrs. Phoebe Haire , died in the fire. It is believed that the arsonist was a member of the Maguire clan. Extensive safety and restoration measures were undertaken in the 1960s, and further work to preserve the ruins was carried out in the late 1990s.
Evidence for an earlier council suggests that the area was settled very early. At Castle Balfour Demesne, traces of a ditch between two ramparts were discovered after digging had progressed to a depth of 2 meters. Attempts to find an outer ditch of a rath with a double ditch ended with the result: “no clear, sharp edges”, in contrast to the steeply sloping inner ditch. They found radiocarbon data from 359-428 n. Chr. At the council of Castle Balfour.
construction
In 1618/1619 Captain Nicholas Pynnar reported that Balfour “laid the foundations for a bawn ( curtain wall ) made of lime and stone, 21 meters by 21 meters, from which two sides are listed at a height of 5 meters. There is also a castle of the same length, one half of which has been built on two floors and which is supposed to grow to three and a half floors. " Castle Balfour was a long, rectangular, three-story building facing north-south; the main block was 26 meters by 8 meters. It had a rectangular wing added to the east and west, as well as later a rectangular block on the north side. The castle is built in the style of Scottish castles and is thought to be the work of builders from the Scottish Netherlands. The castle ruins still preserved today have a T-shaped floor plan and an entrance with loopholes. The castle has vaulted rooms and a kitchen with hob and oven on the ground floor, main living rooms on the first floor and tourelles on consoles with loopholes.
Individual evidence
- ^ Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland: Historic Monuments of Northern Ireland . Her Majesty's Stationary Office , Belfast 1987. p. 119.
- ^ Castle Balfour . In: Environment and Heritage Service NI - State Care Historic Monuments . Archived from the original on July 22, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
- ↑ a b c Laurence Flanagan : A Dictionary of Irish Archeology . Gill & Macmillan, Dublin 1992. pp. 50-51.
- ^ A b Ernest Sandford : Discover Northern Ireland . Northern Ireland Tourist Board, Belfast 1976. ISBN 0-9500222-7-6 . P. 152.
- ↑ a b c Castle Balfour . Archived from the original on April 2, 2014. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved October 9, 2015.
- ^ Matthew Stout : The Irish Ringfort . Four Courts Press, Dublin 1997. pp. 18 + 28.
- ^ Plantagenet Somerset Fry : Castles of Britain and Ireland . David & Charles, Newton Abbot 2001. p. 204.
- ↑ Other Plantation Castles in Fermanagh . Retrieved October 9, 2015.
Web links
Coordinates: 54 ° 15 ′ 1 ″ N , 7 ° 26 ′ 43.7 ″ W.