Dromore Castle

Notes:

A Picturesque composition in the Castle Style, inspired by the Rock of Cashel, composed as a cluster of contrasting forms with an irregular and interesting silhouette. According to the Building News (29 March 1867, 222), it was designed to protect the occupants 'in the event of the country being disturbed'. The paired lancets with geometric tracery and the blind trefoil-headed arcade in the entrance tympanum are 13th century in character, while the base batter, slit windows, stepped battlements, and machicolises are all derived from 15th century Irish tower houses. According to Reid, it was the clerk of works who recommended the use of limestone rather than Bath stone, 'which was badly suited to this humid climate' (127). The masonry is snecked, the rubble treated with two distinct finishes - cleaved and roughly stugged - randomly applied. Ashlar trim, including the parapet. Although ruined the interior is notable for the use of polished red limestone, which appears in the shafts of some piers between doors into the drawing room, and in the magnificent chimneypiece opposite. The latter has a hunting scene carved in shallow relief into the cornice. While the precedent of Adare Manor must have had some influence on the use of red limestone in the interiors, it is worth noting that E.W. Godwin travelled around Ireland in the summer of 1867 with William Burges, then involved in completing St Fin Barr's Cathedral, where he used Cork Red limestone in the interior. For their relationship and an account of the design and construction of the castle, see Aileen Reid, 'Dromore Castle, County Limerick: Archaeology and the Sister Arts of E. W. Godwin', Architectural History 30 (1987), 113-142.