Dunlough Castle
| Dunlough Castle | ||
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 Dunlough Castle ruins with Dun Lough lake, view from the south |
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| Creation time : | 1207 | |
| Castle type : | Niederungsburg | |
| Conservation status: | ruin | |
| Standing position : | Irish nobility | |
| Construction: | Quarry stone | |
| Place: | Lissagraffin | |
| Geographical location | 51 ° 28 '57.6 " N , 9 ° 49' 45.5" W | |
| Height: | 69 m ASLTemplate: height / unknown reference | |
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Dunlough Castle ( Three Castle Head , Irish Ceann na DTRI Chaisleán ) is the ruin of a lowland castle in Town Country Dunlough (Irish Dun Locha ) at the extreme northern end of the Mizen Head in Ireland's County Cork . Donagh O'Mahony had the castle built in 1207; making it one of the oldest Norman castles in the south of Ireland and an interesting example of Norman architecture and dry stone construction .
description
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Dunlough Castle consists of three fortified towers or donjons , which are almost invisible on the isthmus that connects the "Three Castle Head" with the mainland. The castle can only be reached from the south via private farmland. The towers are connected by a wall that extends more than 30 meters from the western cliffs to the banks of an apparently man-made lake. Most of the wall has collapsed today, only in some places it is up to 5 meters high. On the east bank of the lake, a wall from the same period serves as a dam that prevents the lake's waters from flowing over the cliffs into Dunmanus Bay about 100 meters below. The path around the lake on the east side is uncomfortable to walk and the west side is occupied by the castle and the wall. A small footpath between the furthest western ruins and the 120 meter high cliffs gives access to the towers and the other rocky cliffs. As one writer observed, "To an invading army, the top of the cliffs, the defensive wall, the lake, and the dark, inaccessible entrance may have made the castle impregnable." It is not known whether Dunlough Castle was ever attacked.
history
By the time the first Norman soldiers and settlers arrived in Ireland, in 1169, the O'Mahonys princes of Eóganacht Raithlind were still powerful but on the decline , covering an area roughly from the city of Cork to west to the Mizen- Ruled the peninsula. Their regional importance had declined sharply since the MacCarthy family moved south from Tipperary in the early 12th century ; it deteriorated even faster when the Normans invaded southern Ireland. Their main Irish rivals (and allies) were the MacCarthys and the O'Briens . But all these groups were clearly surpassed in military terms by the Normans, who followed the first incursion of the English King Henry II .
In 1177 Heinrich II lent "the Kingdom of Cork" to the Cambro-Norman knights Robert FitzStephen and Miles de Cogan . De Cogan received the lands west of Cork and advanced towards the Atlantic, driving the families there from their holdings in central Cork. The O'Mahony clan, led by its clan chief Donagh, "the emigrant", settled at the extreme south-western point of Ireland, at the tip of the Mizen peninsula.
architecture
As an example of drywall construction, Dunlough Castle is notable because the three towers are different in appearance; each of them is smaller than the typical individual towers of the region. The three towers and their connecting wall were integrated into the landscape and were probably a deterrent target for invading armies, although it is not known whether any one ever tried to take the castle.
Each of the three towers has three floors, typical of the towers of the time with a rectangular floor plan. There are no turrets or parapets on the remaining buildings. The eastern tower was probably the gate tower , although the actual gateway is now in ruins. The western tower is the largest and probably once housed the rooms for most of the respective residents. Typical of the "lower towers" found in larger Norman castles is that the middle tower was equipped with an additional lookout and storage rooms and served to reinforce the connecting wall.
The interior design of Dunlough Castle is similar to that of other early Irish castles. The east tower has a spiral staircase while the west tower has straight stairs. Both types of stairs can be found in the central tower. The spiral staircase in the east tower is visible from the outside today because the outer walls are crumbling. The simple, rectangular shaped towers of Dunlough Castle anticipated the style of the other castles in the area that were later built and some of which are still preserved. Simple and unadorned, these castles, many of them O'Mahony Donjons, rise from the landscape along both banks of the Mizen Peninsula.
A construction detail common to all O'Mahony castles - also visible on the west tower of Dunlough Castle - is the door on the first floor. It is usually located directly above or slightly next to the entrance on the ground floor and was probably reached via a movable wooden ladder. From this door the path leads either further into the first floor (usually made of wood) or up to the second floor. The second floor of Dunlough Castle, like other O'Mahony castles, has a stone floor and housed a banquet or meeting hall. This was a common detail in most of the early Norman donjons.
Dunlough Castle's decay is due in part to the drywall that was used to build it. This type of construction is atypical of the castles in this area, which were built in later years using wet mortar and sand. However, the use of drywall was common in early Irish buildings.
Individual evidence
- ^ Peter Somerville-Large: The West Coast of Cork . Appletree Press, Belfast 1985. p. 142.
- ^ BJ Graham: Economy and Town in Anglo-Norman Ireland in John Bradley (editor): Settlement and Society in Medieval Ireland . Boethius Press, Kilkenny 1988. p. 249.
- ^ Edmund Curtis: A History of Medieval Ireland . Barnes & Noble, New York 1968. p. 81.
- ^ Jeremiah O'Mahony: West Cork and Its Story , Miros Press, Cork 1961. p. 96.
- ^ Robin Frame: Colonial Ireland, 1169-1369 . Helicon, Dublin 1981. p. 32.
- ↑ Jack Roberts: Exploring West Cork . Key Books, Skibbereen 1988. p. 49.
- ↑ Harold G. Leask: Irish Castles and Castallated Houses . Dundalagen Press, Dundalk 1941. p. 34.
- ↑ a b Niall McCullough, Valerie Mulvin: A Lost Tradition: The Nature of Architecture in Ireland . Gandon Editions, Dublin 1987. p. 35.
- ↑ Harold G. Leask: Irish Castles and Castallated Houses . Dundalagen Press, Dundalk 1941. pp. 27-35.
- ↑ Jack Roberts: Exploring West Cork . Key Books, Skibbereen 1988. p. 95.
