CASTLES
Dublin and Limerick after 1205, did royal castles join
the first rank. The weakness of the English king in
terms of power on the ground lasted throughout the
medieval period; power, land, and castles were indis-
solubly linked. Castles also changed the landscape of
settlement. Major castles formed the centers of new
towns (Carrickfergus and Carlingford were linked to
new ports). Some, like Trim, were founded on monastic
sites that could be easily developed as towns, perhaps
because they were already centers of population. No
evidence has yet been noted for the management of the
rural landscape, through parks or routes, for castles in
Ireland as it has in England, but this may be the result
of the lack of looking rather than true absence.
The story of castles in the 150 years from around
1200 is one of steady development along preexisting
lines—castles that usually reflected contemporary
English (rarely French) practice, although there are
signs of variations by Irish masons. Some of the major
stone castles show the successive additions that
resulted from their continuing positions as chief places
of lordships: Trim (new hall range) or Carrickfergus
and Dungarvan (twin-towered gate house). Probably
because of the relative lack of resources, castles with
additions are the exception; most lords seem to have
been perforce content with the buildings they inherited.
New lordships, of course, required new castles. The
expansion of his family in north Connacht caused
Richard de Burgh to construct Ballymote and Ballintober,
while his ambitions in western Ulster produced Green
Castle, County Donegal. The royal weakness in castle
building continued after John’s reign. Roscommon
was a major castle, but the next largest project was
at modest Roscrea. Limerick was left unfinished, and
there was little work at Dublin. This is the period when
the towered enclosure dominated by a grand gatehouse
holds sway in European castles. In Ireland we see the
prevalence of the twin-towered gatehouse: Castle Roche
(1230s), Roscommon (1270s), and Ballymote (after
1299). Even if the model is grand, however, the scale
of castles in Ireland tended to be more modest. Green
Castle, in Donegal, reflects Edward I’s great castles in
north Wales, but at half scale. This is not a question of
a lack of awareness of developments elsewhere
(Roscommon foreshadows Edward’s castle of Harlech
ten years afterward), but of a lack of resources. The
overall design is usually simpler, and economies are
made in the accommodation of the households, but not
in the lord’s rooms. The defensive strength of castles in
Ireland is similarly severely reduced in comparison
with Europe; lords in Ireland do not seem to have antic-
ipated much warfare. Some major buildings (Swords or
Ballymoon), provide elaborate accommodation for the
lord and his household, while remaining essentially
undefended enclosures.
Lesser castles are elusive in the thirteenth century.
The principal remains appear to be individual stone
buildings. These are often interpreted as hall-houses,
which implies that one building may combine hall,
chamber, and stores, but there must have been other
elements: kitchens, farm buildings, and so forth. Some
buildings (Witches Castle, Castle Carra) are too small
for halls, and it is more likely that they were chamber
towers attached to wooden halls. Few display strong
enclosures; in documentary accounts of manorial cen-
ters they may be described as surrounded merely by a
hedge. By contrast, some borders in Ireland were
marked by small, stone-built enclosures, lacking tow-
ers or gates, and apparently offering simple shelter for
small (c.20–50 men) bands stationed there to protect
against raids. Until the mid-fourteenth century, there
are few cases of Gaelic Irish lords constructing castles.
A number of motte castles in mid-Ulster and some in
Connacht, but only one or two stone castles, may be
suggested as their work.
The fourteenth century saw a considerable change
in castle building. The great castles seem confined to
a few major lords, principally the great earls of late
Anglo-Ireland: Kildare, Desmond, and Ormond. The
finest surviving example is Askeaton castle, built for
Desmond during the fifteenth century; a window in the
great hall is very similar to one in the nearby friary
founded in 1389. There is a great hall in the outer
court; more-privileged visitors could penetrate to the
inner court, where the earl and his immediate house-
hold were accommodated in a great tower with major
state rooms and private chambers. Apart from being
set on an island in the River Deel (which is not difficult
to cross), the castle is weakly defended, without towers
along the perimeter or (apparently) a gate house. Other
castles such as Newcastle West (also Desmond), Adare
(earl of Kildare), or Granny (Ormond) show the same
pattern of fine domestic accommodation for the lord but
provision for smaller households and weak defenses.
Even the larger castles were slow to provide for the
deployment of guns. Unlike the earlier castles, it is not
easy to find close parallels in England or France for
either the architectural details or the overall design.
The vast majority of castles from after the mid-
fourteenth century—several thousand were built—were
tower houses. As the name implies, the key to them is
a stone tower, although in some cases at least a hall
and other buildings of less-substantial material were
attached. The accommodation is modest, suited for a
family in the more modern sense rather than a large
household. They have defensive features, but careful
analysis often shows these to be (even more than is
usual among castles) more gestures of display than
effective defense, even against low-level violence. For
example, there are flanking towers that do not cover