Wkstijopp — Eartluvorlcs and Ring-walls in Coimtj/ Limerick. 489 



well and smoothly chiselled, the arch of five stones, with a rather fiat 

 relieving arch above it in the substance of tlie wall, and a second one much 

 higher up the tower— a very unusual feature. The gateway is 8 feet high 

 and 5 feet wide ; there is a porter's lodge to the right (north) as one enters, 

 and over the porch, instead of a vault, are traces of two floors resting on 

 corbels, an arrangement far inferior for defence to the more usual vaulted 

 porch. The outer face of the door has rounded buttresses ; the north jamb 

 has a sunken panel carved with a little spray of mid-fifteenth century 

 foliage, such as we see at Askeaton Friary : the left outer jamb is destroyed. 

 The inner main (western) arch is rude, slightly pointed, and made with many 

 stones. 



The east windows are all reduced to ragged gaps; the western slits are 

 mostly better preserved, but are quite plain (save one pointed and simply 

 moulded), three being in the west and five in the north wall. The top room 

 over the vault has large defaced windows under relieving arches to either 

 face. The staircase is spiral, and broken above the stone floor ; it is in the 

 north-west angle, and ran up to a slight turret on the battlements ; forty 

 steps are entire ; they are reached from a small side building to the north of 

 the porch ; a weather ledge shows that another little building adjoined the 

 west face. The two floors over the porch are under a vault, turned over 

 wicker ; the little rooms over the porter's lodge and beside the staircase are 

 perfect ; a small garderobe is in the north wall. 



The masonry of the ring-wall is (as we noted) far larger, better, and more 

 primitive than that of the towers. The north-west turret abuts against and 

 partly rests upon the ring- wall, which is there 5 feet thick and 10 feet to 

 14 feet high, of large gritstone blocks. The turret is 24 feet 6 inclies by 

 16 feet 6 inches, and is of comparatively little interest. It is lower than the 

 east tower. The defaced door is to the south-east, the wall being boldly 

 battered on that side. A broken stair is in the north wall ; the top lias a 

 late window and cliamfered oblong slits ; only the arch of tiie nortli light 

 remains. There is a small bartizan at the north-west corner; the top story 

 is over a large vault, and there are small vaulted cells in the basement. Of 

 the third turret and the adjoining rampart, the very foundations have been 

 removed from the rock. The Lower Castle is one of the most unusual plan 

 and probably (so far as the rampart is considered) is one of the oldest castles 

 in southern Co. Limerick. 



Ballynoe. The Upper Castle. — O'Donovan, in the Ordnance Survey, 

 alleges that " the original fort" was round the church.' This is, I think, one of 



' O. S, Letters, Co. Limerick, vol. i, p. 275- 



