History with Monica McGill: Tully’s Castle built to protect against unwelcome incursions

LEAVE Clondalkin’s Main Street behind and walk up Monastery Road.  Opposite Castle Park roadway there’s a square tower – Tully’s Castle.  It’s named after a family who once owned it in the 18th and 19th centuries.  It’s referenced in the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage as “DU017-041005 Castle, hall house”.

Tully’s Castle (Caisleán Uí Mhaoltuile) is said to have been built in or about the 1500s.  Today, all that remains of it forms part of the boundary of a private house.  The ruins of the tower’s adjoining house are not entirely viewable from the roadside.  Permission must be obtained from the house-holder before viewing the rear of the tower.

Like many of our heritage buildings, this handsome tower is built of local black calp limestone, although other stonework is visible: later adaptations.

The building is best described accurately in architectural terms at https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/ as follows:

“Located on the South side of Monastery Road where the land falls away to the West and North-west. Known as ‘Tully’s Castle’ … National Monument No. 285 … is in state care.

The remains comprise a well preserved, square tower which is offset off the corner of a hall house.  This service tower rises to three storeys with crenellations and is attached to the North-east corner of the two-storey dwelling.

At the parapet level of the tower there are stepped crenellations with a drip-stone ledge and gutter.  Its interior is not accessible.

[The drip-stone ledge allowed excess water to escape without damaging the building.]

“The South face has been rebuilt to secure the building.  It is built of coursed stonework with hammer dressing on the quoins (external dimemsions 3.3m NW-SE; 3.45m SW-NE).  Lit by plain rectangular opes, some with dressed jambs all on the roadside frontage.  On the upper storey is a projecting boulder which is probably the ‘carved head’ identified by Ball (1899, 97).

“Access to the tower was originally from the South side. There are two large rectangular openings on this side, the upper is a doorway.  A gable scar on the South side indicates the presence of a later building up against this side.

Attached to West wall is a dwelling with remains of a stairwell in the North-west corner. Possible gunloops are present on the ground floor and a chimney breast with a flue on the first floor level

The features of the “carved head” are no longer discernible.  It’s said to depict a love-lorn daughter of a family who owned the tower.

According to local lore, her choice of husband did not coincide with her father’s wishes and the story ended unhappily.  The lady’s ghost is said to haunt the tower still – but only after dark, of course!

Tully’s Castle is one of at least three tower houses that used to be in Clondalkin village, although when these were new they were on the edge of the old conurbation.  According to locals, the second tower house was at Bettyfort, beside Castle housing estate.

A third tower (noted on an antiquarian map) formed part of the boundary of what is now Moyle Park College, along its edge with Convent Road.  They were part of a series of tower houses built to protect strategic districts against unwelcome (and usually violent) incursions.

Carved head under a window facing Monastery Road. (Photo © Monica McGill)

In the 1598 Description of Ireland, Clondalkin was described as “a substantial village” – obviously a prosperous locality.

However, by 1657 the Down Survey reported “at Clandalkin [sic] a stump of a castle, some thatched houses with a high watchtower” possibly meaning the Round Tower.

Similar declines in other areas around Clondalkin were also reported at the time.

(Corkagh Park Archaeological Assessment, AWN Consulting Limited, Ch 12, p. 4)

So what had happened to Clondalkin between 1598 and 1657?

According to Byrne and Graham’s excellent publication, Clondalkin was affected by the 1641 rebellion.  In consequence, Sir William Parsons “advised that Deansrath Castle be demolished ‘to ease the town and to help free the country’.”  Tension must have been high.

(Byrne & Graham: From Generation to Generation, Clondalkin Village, Parish and Neighbourhood, 1989, p. 2.

Copies available at Clondalkin Library or for purchase from The Select Vestry, St John’s Church, Clondalkin).

Furthermore, archaeologists quote F. Elrington Ball’s work A History of the County Dublin:

“In January 1642 the village was burned by a troop of horse cavalry sent from Dublin and in June of that year, many of the castles in the parish were destroyed at this time to remove any potential strongholds in the vicinity of the city (Ball 1902–20).  Castles such as Neilstown Castle, Ballymount Castle and Tully’s Castle were likely destroyed at this time.”  (Archaeological Impact Assessment, Maeve McCormick & Bart Korfanty, November 2021, p. 8, available via https://planning.southdublin.ie/Home/ViewDocument?fileId=6561644)

Later, in property leases dated in the 18th and 19th centuries, Tully’s Castle was referred to as “Clondalkin Castle” and described as located in an area known as “The Sheepus”

(Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 1899).

Our National Monuments Service states that “Tower Houses are defended residences or castles built by the better-off members of society in many parts of Ireland in late medieval times – the 15th and 16th centuries.”  (Article: Ireland’s Tower Houses, Farmers’ Journal, 24.3.2012, p. 14, available at nms-farmers-journal-11_Tower Houses.pdf). Tower houses could employ several means of gruesome defence, including places high on the parapet from which the occupants could drop rocks (or worse) on assailants, a heavy iron grille secured inside the building by a chain protected the main door from incursion, and a murder hole inside the doorway could be used if other defences failed.

Narrow slits in the lower portions of the wall enabled the use of weaponry to repel the enemy.

Usually a spiral or straight stairs connected each floor where there was one main room resting on enormous wooden beams.

A stone vault provided stability under the floor of the main reception room above it where a central hearth had a louvre overhead to dispel fire-smoke.  The central hearth was replaced later by a safer invention – a fireplace and chimney.

Some time you’re near Tully’s Castle, please take a moment to really look at it and consider its contribution to Clondalkin’s heritage and national history.