Westropp — Ancient Castles of the County of Limerick, 65 



in what we know as the Irish town ; but it affected very little the 

 rising city and the Korman power. ^ 



Meanwhile the T^ormans were spreading a net on three sides of 

 the city. They had fortified the ancient mote of KnockgrafPan, with 

 Kilfeakle^ and (probably) Dunohil, in Tipperary. They had made 

 four bretasches^ or wooden castles at Emly, which were burned in 

 1195. At last, in 1199, they built a castle within the limits of the 

 county, on the rock of *' Karakitel," near Kilteely. This was granted 

 to William of Kaas. The old fort of " Karkinles," Cahirconlish, 

 eight miles nearer to Limerick, was next fortified ; and they built a 

 castle on the Island at Eas Gephthine on the Deel, and one at Ard- 

 patrick, near Foynes. About the same time, though it first appears 

 as an established place in later records, they built a castle at Escloun 

 (or, as some crusader probably rendered it, ' Askelon'), perhaps at IS'ew- 

 town de Esclon, near the mouth of the Maigue. Some have supposed 

 that it was a predecessor of that great fortress that lifts to heaven 

 its diadem of towers" on the rock of Carrigogunnell; but, though both 

 names are contemporaneous, they are never equated. Limerick pos- 

 sessed a "bawn" in 1200, which with the repairs needed there in 

 1217 implies the earlier rather than the later date for its castle.* The 

 following year the second "Rock of the O'Gunnings" was granted 

 to William de Burgo by King John, with the stipulation that " if he 

 fortify the same and we desire to have it, we will give him a reasonable 

 exchange." There was built that castle known to us as Castro I 

 Coning, Caslan Ui Chonaing, and Castle connell. 



A castle stood in the important town of Kilmallock in 1206, when 

 the limits of the districts of Limerick and Cork were first detennined. 

 Another had been built at the old fort of Cromadh or Croom, on the 

 river Maigue by about 1216, and was given to Maurice Eitz Gerald. Its 



^ The authorities used in this section are the Annals of Loch Ce, Inisf alien, and 

 Four Masters ; the Calendars of Documents relating to Ireland ; Patent, Close, and 

 Plea Rolls ; Inquisitions, &c. They are cited fully under each castle in the 

 subsequent survey. 



The castle of Kilfeakle stands at some distance from the mote. 



^ For such structures, see R.S.A.I., vol. xxiv., pp. 332, 337. ''Castles of 

 wood" Avere taken by Sussex, in County Clare, after the capture of Bunratty in 

 1558 (Carew i., p. 276), and the palisaded mote of Ballysonan in Kildare, was taken 

 by the Parliamentary forces in 1648, R.S.A.I. (1856-7), iv., consecutive, p. 111. 



* The Annals of Clonmacnoise, in telling how Meyler de Bermingham and Cathal 

 Crovderg O'Conor expelled "William de Burgo from Limerick in *' 1202," states 

 that they "refused to give him one castle there." 



