Clonbuogh Castle, Clonbuogh, Co. Tipperary North

Co. Tipperary |

Tower Houses

Clonbuogh Castle, Clonbuogh, Co. Tipperary North

The ruins of Clonbuogh Castle stand on a rocky outcrop in the gently rolling countryside of North Tipperary, surrounded by intriguing historical features.

A church lies to the west, whilst aerial photographs from 1968 revealed earthworks scattered to the south, west and northwest of the tower house. By 1654, the Civil Survey recorded the structure as a 'stumpe of a castle without repayre', owned by Piers, Lord Viscount Ikerrin, an Irish Catholic who held the lands through ancestral descent.

What remains today is a small rectangular castle measuring 14 metres northwest to southeast and 8 metres northeast to southwest, with walls roughly 1.4 metres thick. Built from coarsely coursed limestone rubble with a characteristic base batter, the walls still reach two storeys in height, though only the foundations remain visible at the northwest corner. The ground floor once featured a barrel vault, now destroyed, and the centre of the southeast wall contained a single light window set within a segmental arched embrasure, also lost to time.

Early 19th century Ordnance Survey letters describe additional features that have since vanished, including a round tower at what they recorded as the southwest angle and part of a square tower at the northeast angle. The north wall featured a doorway near the round tower, leading to a spiral staircase with an interior diameter of just over two metres. Today, a tower still projects from the southeast angle of the castle, where possible jambstones suggest an external door once provided access through the southeast wall, offering a tantalising glimpse of how this fortified residence once functioned.

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