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Figure from: The defensibility of Irish Tower Houses - CSGJ24

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Fig. 9. Audley’s Castle. Murder hole entrance along the spiral staircase. — Figure 9 Audley’s Castle. Murder hole entrance along the spiral staircase.

Related Figures (14)

Fig. 1. Castle Ward - Co Down. Example of battle- ment-level box machicolation over the entrance.

Fig. 3. Audley’s Castle, early C15. The south-eas: facade. Arch machicolation above the entrance in the south (left) turret, at ground floor level. Parapets lost.

Fig. 2. Derryhivenny Castle c.1643. Conjectural re- construction, after Leask, showing extent of the bawn.

Fig. 5. Aughnanure Castle c. C16. From the east. The rooftop machicolation is reconstructed, but the corner bartizans are original. The yett or iron grate

Fig. 4. Audley’s Castle c. C15. The south-east facade. Arch machicolation at parapet level above the en- trance. The most common design of machicolation is box machicolation. This is formed by projecting part of the exterior wall out- wards on corbels [Berryman, 2008, 36]. The box machicolation provides a small opening above the doorway, giving the de- fender a smaller field of vision, but provid- ing them with a good defence against attackers.

Fig. 7. Athclare Castle, Co. Louth. Slot for the chain to close the yett.

Fig. 6. Cregg Castle (Fermore, Co. Cork). Original yett. Image © David Newham Johnson.

Fig. 8. Audley’s Castle, Co. Down. Murder hole exit. for the defenders to hit their attackers, un- less they stood directly under the 'murder hole’. One tower-house, Audley's Castle (County Down), may suggest a different function for the 'murder hole' (Figs. 8, 9). The ‘murder hole’ of Audley's Castle is situated above the door to the ground floor room, not near the main doorway; it is very small with a restricted opening. The im- plausibility of using this ‘murder hole’ for defence leads to the consideration of other functions, such as communication between the first floor and the ground floor, possibly between the lord and his porter concerning admittance to the tower-house. All murder holes provide only a restricted view of the lobby and thus other possible uses should be considered for them as well.

Fig. 10. Queen’s University battering ram team starting work. Below: Fig. 11 Fire just lit.

The Castle Studies Group Journal No 24: 2010-11

Fig. 12. Above: The battering ram team breaking through after 5 minutes. Fig. 13. Below: The oak door burnt down completely after about 45 minutes.

Fig 14. Jordan’s Castle, near Ardglass, Co. Down. Third example of the ‘arch machicolation’. could only have been used to defend the tower as a last resort. This experiment has shown that a simple, and typical, tower- house was not designed to be exclusively or primarily defensive; this is supported by the lack of effective defensive features, such as a yett. Therefore, although tower- houses appear similar to great castles, they are not the same and should be studied in isolation, with different research objectives and methods of study.

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