‘The entrance to an Irish house, castle, or tower,’ writes the late J. H. Parker, ‘is usually protected in a manner unknown in England—at least not commonly known—for there are a few instances of a similar arrangement in England. There is no external porch, but the doorway opens into a small space, about 6 feet square and about 8 or 10 feet high; in front is the door to the cellar; on the right is the door to a small guard-chamber; on the left the door to the staircase; each of these doors is barred on the other side, so that the visitor can proceed no further without permission, and immediately over his head is a small square or round hole, emphatically called a “murthering hole”; this opens into a small chamber in which a pile of paving stones was kept ready for use, so that if an enemy had forced the outer door, he would not be much the forwarder. These precautions were evidently taken to guard against any sudden surprise.’ But in the Irish tower-houses there was another provision for security. The outer doorway was frequently furnished with a portcullis, so that an unwelcome visitor upon entering the space referred to by the great authority on the domestic architecture of the Middle Ages, with the doors in front and at the sides fastened, the ‘murthering hole’ above his head, and the portcullis grate dropped behind him, would be securely entrapped. A small projecting bartizan or machicolation set in the top of the tower, is usually found surmounting the doorway on the exterior. Similar turrets occasionally protect angles of the building, by means of which any foe attempting to dislodge the coign stones might be easily crushed. A large, and often handsomely-constructed, fireplace is generally found in the principal apartment. The chimney-shafts, as a rule, are quadrangular. Curiously enough, the kitchen is usually placed outside the building. In a good many examples well-constructed ‘garderobes,’ or closets, occur.
The windows, which, it should be observed, are commonly very small, splay internally, and are usually placed slightly above the level of the floor, from which they are approached by a few steps. There is generally a stone seat within the splay, upon each side of the light. This remark, of course, only refers to the principal windows.
Scurloughstown Castle.
The castle of Scurloughstown, which stood in the immediate vicinity of Trim, was probably as good an example as any which have remained to our own day of the lesser keep, usually found in those districts wherein the earlier colonies of the English or Anglo-Normans obtained footing. It no longer exists. The above sketch was made a few years before the tower, which upon one of its sides exhibited a crack extending from summit to foundation, fell to the ground.
The castle of Bullock, standing immediately above the little harbour of the same name, not far from the Dalkey station of the Dublin, Wicklow, and Wexford Railway, is worth a visit. It has been very carefully restored, and is now used as a residence. The castle of Dalkey is used as a town hall.
Bullock Castle, near Kingstown, Co. Dublin.
Of the origin of these very interesting structures, no notice, as far as we could ascertain, has been preserved. It is extremely probable that they were erected by English settlers, not long after the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland—their architectural features indicating an early period; and similar buildings, connected together by a wall enclosing a very considerable space, occur in several localities known to have been occupied by the early English.
We may here also mention the picturesque and well-preserved castle of Drimnagh, lying at a distance of about four miles from Dublin, on the road to Crumlin. Its bawn is still perfect, and the ancient fosse, by which the whole was enclosed, remains in fine preservation, and is still deep. Drimnagh was considered a place of considerable strength during the rising of 1641, and it appears to have been strengthened, and in a great measure re-edified, about that unhappy period of Ireland’s history.