Athclare Castle, Co Louth
Mark Bence-Jones. A Guide to Irish Country Houses (originally published as Burke’s Guide to Country Houses volume 1 Ireland by Burke’s Peerage Ltd. 1978); Revised edition 1988 Constable and Company Ltd, London.
p. 14. A C16 tower-house with a hall wing attached. Part Gothic, part Renaissance fireplace.
The name Athclare derives from the Irish Áth Cláir, meaning Ford on level land, and here in County Louth stands a mid-16th century tower house originally built for the Barnewell family, who were then prominent landowners in this part of the country. The building is of four storeys and, as was usual for such structures, has just an arched entrance on the ground floor, the sole point of access. A stone spiral staircase in the south-east corner leads to the upper levels, with a large hall on the first floor. Here can be found an enormous limestone chimneypiece, the border of which is decorated with fantastical animals amid trailing floral garlands.
Athclare Castle subsequently passed into the possession of the Taafe family who may have added the substantial wing to the east of the original building. The house was then acquired by London merchant Erasmus Smith who supplied provisions to Oliver Cromwell’s army and used the funds received to buy various parcels of land until eventually he owned over 46,000 acres. On his death, he left a trust arising from ‘the great and ardent desire which he hath that the children inhabiting upon any part of his lands in Ireland should be brought up in the fear of God and good literature and to speak the English tongue.’ The Erasmus Smith Trust went on to establish five grammar schools in Dublin, Tipperary, Ennis, Galway and Drogheda.
https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/13901808/athclare-castle-athclare-county-louth
Detached multiple-bay three-storey tower house, built c. 1550, extended c. 1650. Rectangular-plan, tower to east. Pitched slate roof, clay ridge tiles, red brick corbelled chimneystack, c.1970, half-round gutters on corbelled eaves course, circular cast-iron downpipes; corbelled stone parapet to tower. Random rubble stone walling, stone quoins, stone string course to parapet. Pointed arch, square-headed window openings, some uPVC windows; arrow loops to north, south and east including decorative arrow loop to first floor south elevation, stone surrounds. Pointed arch door opening to south, dressed limestone voussoirs, steel gate; square-headed door openings to north, smooth rendered surrounds, uPVC and timber and glazed doors,. Two-storey house directly abuts castle to west. Single- and two-storey outbuildings to north forming courtyard c. 1840; hipped and pitched slate roofs, random rubble stone walling, segmental-headed window openings, red brick surrounds, painted timber casements; segmental- and square-headed door openings, red brick surrounds, painted timber vertically timber sheeted doors and metal roller shutters.
Athclare Castle is typical of defensive residential architecture of the period. This sixteenth-century tower house was built by the Barnewell family and later extended in the seventeenth century, the plain extension is distinguished by the stocky tower to the east. It continues to be partially in residential use and the later stable yard to the north indicates that the site has been adapted over the centuries to accommodate those living in the castle. The decorative carving to some of the small window openings is worthy of particular note and Athclare Castle is a site of importance to the heritage of County Louth.
Casey, Christine and Alistair Rowan. The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster. Penguin Books, London, 1993.
p. 277. “Stocky four-storey tower house built in the C16 by the Barnewall family, with an adjoining C17 wing, tall and gabled. A plain building, whose only ornament is its limestone corner quoins, in striking contrast to the fine cutstone detail at nearby Roodstown (See Stabannan). In the tower house the external stone entrance to the north probably replaces an original entrance on the east side. The spiral stair was located in the SE angle, with garderobe chambers in the SW. Inside, crisp cutstone doors survive, corbels, original timber beams and the piece de resistance, a large limestone chimneypiece with a pretty border of small flowers set in a hollow moulding and some tree vine-leaf decoration on the base.”
Irish Historic Houses 