The following description of the stronghold is taken from an inquisition held at this time on the Manor of Mallow:—
“One castle containing in itself two small courts and one great barbican, namely, where the howse standeth the enterance in is on the north side ffyrste into one of the said courts, and then turninge one the lefte hande ye enter by a doore, beinge in a highe wall into the Balne or Barbican, which is reasonable large, and then goinge a little way, turninge one the lefte hande, have ye enterance by an other stone wall, whereas the castell or howse standeth, the lower rooms whereof ar sellers vauled over. And in the wall one the lefte hande there be stay res of stone of xii stepps in heyght that leadeth one the right hande into the Hall, which is about lx foote longe and xxvi foot wyde, within the howse, and is deepe, with a highe roofe, the Tymber wereof seemeth to be sounde, and is covered with thacke, some thinge decayed at the north ende; towards the west corner there is a square buyldinge vaulted as thother is, but not so broade, and riseth somewhat higher than the roofe of the hall in which, over the sellor, ar fower stronge roomes that may be made meete for lodgings: the uppermost, savinge one, is vaulted.”
The siege during the Desmond rebellion must have caused the castle to need repair, and even at subsequent dates it seems to have been in a ruinous condition.
At first after this, the district of Mallow was assigned to Pelham, H.M. Attorney-General, and Sir Thomas Norreys, who was holding the place, writes to Burghley in 1587: “I understand Mallow (a place which I have hitherto had keeping of) is assigned to H.M. Attorney-General, who doth little esteem it. I crave to be admitted an associate in Co. Cork, and still keep that place, which I doubt not the Attorney-General will easily yield to. I affect not the place for any special goodness, but having held it so long am the more unwilling to leave it, and, if I may obtain it, will endeavour the best service I can.”
The same year Sir John Norreys, President of Munster, writes from Utrecht complaining that the honour of his office brings little land with it, and asking that Mallow might be granted to him.
He it was who settled the crown of Portugal on the royal house of Braganza, and Edmund Spencer described him in some of the lines of his “Fairy Oueen.”
In 1588 Sir Thomas Norreys received a grant of the castle and lands from Elizabeth.
Here, in Sir Thomas’s arms, died his brother, the great Sir John Norreys, in 1597, of old wounds which had been neglected and turned to gangrene. One of many fables told regarding his death is that the devil, dressed in black, appeared while he was playing cards, and claimed his soul on the spot in fulfilment of an old bargain.
During the Tyrone rebellion in 1598-99 Norreys had his English sheep stolen from Mallow, and his park wall broken down, so that the deer roamed loose.
Upon the restored young Earl of Desmond’s returning to Ireland in 1599 he spent much of his time at Mallow, where he was said to be in love with Lady Norris, widow of Sir Thomas.