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V. 



THE AIs^CIEOT CASTLES OF THE COTJOTY OF LIMEEICK 

 (NOHTH-EASTERjS" BAEOXIES). 



By THOMAS JOHNSOI^ WESTEOPP, M.A. 



EeadApRiL9. Ordered for Publication April 11. Published May 31, 1906. 



The study of castellated architecture in Ireland is as yet in its 

 infancy. Few antiquaries have taken up the matter seriously in the 

 case even of single buildings, and there is no authoritative book on 

 the subject in its broader aspect. Stranger still, and unlike other 

 branches of archaeology, the literature even of the history and still 

 more of the evolution of these buildings hardly exists — few indeed 

 are the monographs even on individual examples. The paper now 

 laid before the Academy is an attempt to trace the rise of the castles 

 in a single county, from the days when the ring forts were in use to 

 the building of the mansions of the Tudor and Stuart times. Each 

 section of the Survey is intended to give workers an outline of the 

 records an.d a brief description of the ruins of each castle ; and it is 

 hoped that the increasing band of local antiquaries may be encouraged 

 to attempt fuller notes on the more important buildings. 



Oar material has accumulated for some twenty-eight years ; and 

 the reception of the recently published Survey of the churches^ in 

 the same district encourages us to attempt a similar work for the 

 lay history and topography of this important county. When the 

 Desmond wars are exhaustively studied, the identification of the 

 localities and persons connected with them will become a pressing 

 necessity. Our ambition is to clear part of this ground for the 

 coming historians of that great disaster. We also hope to render more 

 available the almost unworked documents of our Irish Eecord Office. 

 Peyton, the Inquisitions, the Plea, Pipe, Desmond, and Memoranda 

 Polls, and the great Surveys of 1655, besides such documents as the 

 Black Book of Limerick, and the rentals of Bishop de Eupefort, 1336, 



iProc. R.I.A., XXV. (c), p. 327. 



K.I. A. PKOC, VOL. XXVI., SEC. c] 



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