Coolhull Castle, Co Wexford 

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. 90. “An old castle with a tower at one end and a lower building at the other. Irish battlements.” 

http://irishantiquities.bravehost.com/wexford/coolhull/coolhull.html 

Map Reference: S895098 (2895, 1098) 

There are no historical references to this castle although it is recorded that John Devereaux owned land at Coolhull in 1640. It is a two-storey building with attic, aligned approximately E-W. At the west end is a tall slim four-storey tower of similar date. Both sections have very good crenellations. The lower portion has some fine single- and double-light round-headed windows and there is a bartizan at the NE corner. There is a good fireplace in the north wall at first floor level and traces of another fireplace in the east wall.  

The tower has a north doorway protected by a machicolation at roof level. Just inside, on the left, is the doorway to the hall, now partly blocked. A fine broad spiral stairway rises within the tower but it is not accessible beyond first floor level. Here there is a garderobe and the latrine chute exits at the south base of the tower. There is also a fine slopstone. 

Coolhull Castle, Co. Wexford

Coolhull Castle, County Wexford, in August 1987. 
Those were the wonderful days when the only thing that barred access to our Irish National Monuments was a flattened old wooden palette, regardless of the state of the building. Some intrepid explorers featured here. 

A classic example of a medieval hall house, a modification of the traditional tower house style, which included many of old features of crenellations, bartizans, yetts and much more.