LEAP CASTLE.
ascended to the battlements, where, it is said, he leaped from the castle roof into a large yew-tree, the roots of which have only lately been removed. That the young couple were eventually married is a satisfactory ending to the romance, and certain it is that Leap Castle passed to the Darby family as the marriage portion of an O’Carroll’s daughter who married a Darby, son of an English knight.
The castle is supposed to have been built by the Danes prior to the English invasion, during their conflicts in these parts with the more recently landed Norwegians. The structure resembles their form of defence, being of pyramidical shape, and built in the rubble masonry of that period, with pre-Norman arches and small loopholes for the discharge of arrows and javelins. The walls vary from 15 to 25 feet in width. There are several stone stairways in the thickness of the walls, and parts of them are brightly polished from constant use. The keep is the oldest construction, and it forms the hall of the present edifice. The wings, one at each side, were built at the end of the sixteenth or beginning of the seventeenth century. That on the north-west connects what is known as the “Priest’s House” with the main building. This dwelling is of fourteenth-century masonry, and was used as the chief residence of the family in times of peace.
In the top of the keep is situated what is known as “The Bloody Chapel,” having been desecrated by one Teige O’Carroll, who murdered his brother before the altar. It was formerly covered with a stone roof, but this gave way last century. A curious old stone-fastening remains that formerly received the bar of the door.
Off the chapel is the oubliette, formerly supplied with a spring death-trap. Not so very long ago three cart-loads of bones were removed from it and buried in consecrated ground. Bits of several old watches were found among the remains.
Large dungeons are situated below the keep, and there are many bricked-up passages and secret chambers. One of the former is said to lead to a neighbouring rath. The guard-room on the south-east side is hewn out of the rock. Numerous bones have been found in different parts of the building.