Wkstkopp — Fortified Headlands and Castles in Western Co. Cork. 27 o 



The Keep or peel tower is an oblong building, the face 28 feet long, the 

 interior 19 feet 3 inches x 13 feet 9 inches, the walls 5 feet 9 inches to 6 feet 

 thick, of good plain masonry, without any moulding or carving. A side building 

 is attached to the eastern 1 face, but is greatly broken ; the staircase is over the 

 doorway of the tower on this side, and was evidently reached by a ladder. 

 The doorway has a plain pointed arch ; its door, as usual, shut back into a 

 recess. There are narrow, deep recessed windows in the side walls. Beside 

 the basement, a second floor and an attic are under the pointed main vault, 

 which was turned over wicker centering. The floors rested on plain corbels. 

 The top story was only roofed, and had larger windows in each wall. I saw 

 no garderobe or fireplace, which favours the age of the tower, but I can 

 hardly believe that it dates from 1207, or even a century later. The stairs 

 ran up the eastward wall, bending at theangle, and rising westward up the 

 southern side, as at Leamcon and elsewhere. 



Turret. — The rampart runs down the rock for about 70 feet to a turret, 

 13 feet 2 inches long, and projecting from the outer face, 7 feet 3 inches. The 

 latter tower has a garderobe in the basement and two lofts, formerly reached 

 by ladders. The top story has lights to the west and south, with a door 

 opening on che top of the rampart. No battlements remain on any of the 

 walls or towers. The rampart runs in two bends of 27 feet on to a gatehouse 

 of some complexity. 



The Gatehouse stands on the shore of the Lough. The entrance had 

 inner and outer arches, which were closed and barred from the inside, I 

 presume lest anyone should get into the enclosed hill, hide till night, and 

 then open the gate treacherously. The outer gate is 6 feet 10 inches wide, 

 the inner, 6 feet 3 inches and 9 feet 8 inches apart ; they have slightly pointed 

 arches. From the interspace a small door opens into a little court, or rather 

 passage, round the other two sides of the gate tower. This turret has a 

 vaulted basement 9 feet by 9 feet 9 inches, and walls 4 feet thick, with a 

 loophole, commanding the outer face of the gate. There are two stories or 

 lofts, reached by a ladder through a trap-door and under another vault. The 

 second floor has slits in each face ; the third, one to the south, and a torn gap 

 westward above the gate. Over the upper vault is a little gabled attic, with 

 an ope overlooking the lake. A small stair runs spirally up the north-west 

 corner. The walls having been very thin there, have fallen, or been broken, 

 down to the basement vault. A short wall runs from the gatehouse out into 

 the lake. The inner bank is walled by a revetment 4 feet thick, following 



1 Rather the N.N.E. I use simpler language— " northern " for N.N.W., southern for 

 S.S.E., etc. 



f43*] 



