Wakeman's handbook of Irish antiquities

by W. F. Wakeman

We have noticed the castle of Malahide first, not that it is supposed to be the most characteristic example of an ancient fortress lying within easy access from Dublin, but because it remains certainly the finest structure of its age and purpose at present to be met with in Ireland, still inhabited, and occupied by a descendant of the original founder.

Castle of Trim, Co. Meath.

King John’s Castle at Trim is of at least equal antiquity, and, though in a state of utter ruin, will impress the visitor with a much more correct idea of the ancient feudal stronghold. Trim stands upon the borders of what was once considered the ‘English Pale,’ and lies at an easy distance from Dublin. It is singularly rich in antiquarian remains, and figured largely in the past history of the English rule in Ireland.

The castle consists of a triangular walled enclosure, defended by circular flanking towers, and a large and lofty donjon or keep in the centre. The north-east side is 171 yards long, and is defended by four towers, viz. two at the angles, and two intermediate. The west side is 116 yards long, and was defended by flanking towers at the angles, and a gateway tower in the centre. The portcullis groove is very perfect; and it seems, from the projecting masonry, that there had been a drawbridge and barbican to the gate. The third side sweeps round at an easy curve to the Boyne; it is 192 yards long, defended by six flanking towers, including those at the angles and at the gate. The gate tower is circular and is in good preservation, as well as are the arches over the ditch, and the barbican beyond it. The gate had also its portcullis, the groove for which, and the recess for its windlass, are perfect. The entire circuit of the castle wall, then, is 486 yards, defended by ten flanking towers, at nearly equal distances, including those at the gates. The donjon is a rectangular building, the plan of which may be thus described: on the middle of each side of 64 feet rectangles are constructed, the sides perpendicular to the square being 20 feet, and those parallel to it 24 feet: thus a figure of twenty sides is constructed. The thickness of the walls of the large tower is 12 feet, and of the smaller towers from 4 feet 6 inches to 6 feet. The walls were carried up 60 feet above the level of the ground, but on each angle of the large tower, square turrets, 16 feet 6 inches in height, are built. By this arrangement, a large shower of missiles might have been projected in any direction.[129]

A castle, which there is every reason to believe occupied the site of the present structure, was erected by Walter de Lacy in 1173, who had obtained from Henry II. a grant of Meath. During the absence of de Lacy, while the castle was in the custody of Hugh Tyrrell, it was attacked and demolished by Roderick O’Conor, King of Connaught. In Hanmer’s Chronicle of Ireland, the circumstances of its erection are thus given: ‘Anno 1220. Meath was wonderfully afflicted and wasted by reason of the private quarrels and civil warres between William, Earl Marshall, Earle of Pembroke, &c., and Sir Hugh de Lacy, Earle of Ulster and Lord of Connaught. Trimme was besieged and brought to a lamentable plight, and when the rage and fury of these garboiles were somewhat mitigated and appeased, after the shedding of much blood the same year, to prevent afterclaps and subsequent calamities, the castle of Trim was builded.’

* * * * *

Maynooth Castle.​—​The once great castle of Maynooth, erected in 1176 by Maurice FitzGerald, who came over with Strongbow, can be easily visited from Dublin. It is a fine example of the kind of structure which combined the baronial residence with the military fortress. The keep is of the original Norman work. The ground-floor, like that of Athenry Castle, and others of the same period, is divided into two large vaulted apartments, over which were state rooms of fine proportions. Bedrooms of various sizes occupied the upper portion of the tower. The servants and members of the household were accommodated in buildings stretching between the barbican of the outworks and a strong flanking tower which still remains. It is stated in Holinshed’s account of the sack of this Geraldine stronghold by Sir William Skeffington in 1553, as the result of Silken Thomas’ Rebellion, that ‘great and riche was the spoile, such store of beddes, so many goodly hangings, so riche a wardrob, such brave furniture, as truly it was accompted for householde stuffe and vtensils one of the richest Earle his homes under the crowne of Englande.’ It was again restored, and finally dismantled by the Irish troops of Owen Roe O’Neill in 1647.

It seems to have taken a considerable period to reconcile the native Irish to the use of castles or tower houses as places of every-day abode. The free-roving Celt could ill brook the confinement of narrow vaults and stifling chambers. To him, as a chieftain actually declared, ‘a castle of bones was every way preferable to a castle of stones.’ By this was meant that the head of a clan, surrounded by his following of hardy kerns and gallowglasses, was safer and every way better off than an effeminate sojourner between the four walls of a tower. A time at length arrived when the native potentates, petty chieftains, and gentlemen of lesser degree, followed the example of their invaders, and erected stone dwellings, very similar to those of the strangers with which they had become familiarised. These almost invariably consist of a tall quadrangular tower, with or without outworks, but generally furnished with a bawn or enclosure into which at night, or during raiding times, the owner’s cattle were driven.

The apartment on the ground-floor was almost invariably covered with a vault of stone, evidently a precaution against fire. In some instances all the flooring was supported on pointed or barrel arches of stone; but, generally, the upper storeys were provided with floors of timber. A staircase of stone usually led to the upper apartments; sometimes it ran straight through the thickness of the wall from floor to floor, access to the various apartments being provided by narrow doorways, with pointed, flat, or semicircular heads. These three forms are not unfrequently found in the one building. Sometimes the staircase is enclosed in a projecting tower, and rises spiral fashion, with doorways at one side like those already referred to. A second staircase leading to small apartments, which may have been used as bedrooms, is often to be noticed.