Maynooth Castle

Posted on 02. May, 2009 by Maynooth Town Portal in History

Maynooth Castle

Maynooth Castle like most Irish castles built before the middle of the thirteenth century, had as its dominating feature a great tower called a keep. Maynooth belongs to the group of castles each of which had a free standing keep which stood in a court enclosed by a curtain wall. This inner court so formed contained the great hall and the buildings which were the dwelling quarters of the lord and house-hold. Outside this there was an outer court, also enclosed by a wall, of which nothing is left except part of the wall incorporated in the church of Ireland parish church.

The Keep

The keep of Maynooth Castle is very large, measuring 72 feet north and south and 62 feet east and west, with walls 6 I/ 2 feet thick. Entry to the keep was through a fore-building, no longer there, which projected into the inner court on the east side. A door at ground level opened into this building or porch. From there a straight stair rose 20 feet to the doorway in the wall near the north-east angle of the keep. The landing of this stair would have been a trapdoor or drawbridge so that, in any emergency, approach to the first floor could be cut off. This also enabled goods to be lowered to the basement for storage. The first floor seems to have been divided into two halves by a timber partition with a central pillar of stone. In the middle of the east wall there is another opening where a door led into a room in the fore building. The hall at the west end may have been intended for more private purposes as it has three small rooms built in the thickness of the walls. Two may have been small. rooms as they have fireplaces and the third possibly a garde-robe, that is a latrine or privy. If so it would have bad a shaft which has since been blocked up. On the north wall of this second hall there is a postern, that is a gateway that allowed a sudden sally by the defenders to attack besiegers. This postern gave access to the parapet walk of the curtain wall by means of a moveable bridge. From the first floor of the keep it is possible to see the defensive features at the top of the building. There would originally have been four turrets and the north-east one is still there. A door can be seen in its south side and this gave access to the east parapet walk. Higher up on the turret can be seen the jamb of an arrow slit or window. The room inside the turret, which was lit by this aperture, was connected by a circular stair with both the parapet walk and a wall gallery below it. This wall gallery, built in the thickness of the upper walls, can also be seen from inside the keep on the east wall, and bits of it on the south and west walls. On the north wall there is another door high up and directly over the postern in the second or western hall.

Inside the Castle

This door was reached by a ladder. The beginning of a straight stairway can be seen inside the doorway and this rises through the thickness of the wall to the north-east turret. The presence of corbels, which are projections of stone jutting out from the walls to act as supports, indicates that there were floors at higher levels. Since there are no windows at that height to let in light and air it is suggested that there may have been an upper floor over one half only of the keep, and that the half above the roof over the western hall was left open to let in light and air. Today a circular stair leads to the basement which is also divided into two compartments. The dividing wall here supports two vaults and is of later construction. In early Norman castles timber floors divided the different storeys, and the risk of fire associated with this probably led to the introduction of vaulted floors.

The Building

A building of the size of this keep must have taken a long time to erect. The evidence of the masonry suggests that there were three separate stages in the work, so that perhaps the first Maurice Fitzgerald may have carried out the earliest stage The shell of the main gate to the inner court still stands also. It is a rectangular three-storey tower and the passage into the court occupies the lowest floor. The wide windows, which have been blocked up but which are clearly visible, were part of the seventeenth-century improvements by the Earl of Cork. Not only Cork’s windows but his buildings have also gone. He probably built a gallery, fashionable in the seventeenth century, over the eastern buttresses where three large arches are still standing. These buttresses, or projecting supports, mark the site of the original great hall of the castle. The tower at the south east corner of the inner court is also still there. This contained the lord’s chamber and other dwelling rooms with a garde-robe on each upper floor. There is also a private stair and exit. The exit is a narrow passage between the stair and the shaft of the garde-robe. It goes down by steps to a doorway in the north side of the tower. This doorway was once much higher above ground level than it is now, and a ladder was needed for access. The entrance was also defended by a murdering hole, an opening in the floor above the doorway through which the defenders could fire on attackers who bad managed to get in. Lord Cork altered this tower also but again his windows have been filled in since. There are also the remains of a smaller tower at the north east corner of the inner court. Here there is another postern with a passage protected by a recess built to fit a swordsman and allow him free play of his right arm. A secret underground tunnel, whose entrance is now sealed, starts from this tower and local,-tradition says it rises in the tower at Laraghbryan. The chapel restored by Lord Cork is believed to be the building erected into a collegiate church in 1521, and this, greatly altered by further renovations over the centuries, still stands and marks the wall of the outer court.

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