BROWNE’S CASTLE IN 1908 (Clashmealcon Causeway) Westropp’s description INTRODUCTORY NOTE In an old sketch-map now in the British Library, the area between the Cashen and Kerry Head is marked as ‘The half Barony of Brown & Contlone’, commemorating the families of Brown(e) and Cantillon, who established themselves in this part of Kerry after the Norman invasion and are found there from the end of the thirteenth century. Thomas Browne, late of Newtown [Ballynoe], who was killed on 10 June 1581 taking part in the Desmond rebellion, was found to have held ‘divers lands in the Cantred of Brown and Cantlon’, while John Browne of ‘Kerybrowne’, Maurice Browne, and others of the family, were also found to have entered into rebellion against ‘our said Lady the Queen’. This John Browne is presumably the ‘John Browne alias Brownagh, of Downbrowne’, who with ‘Tho[mas] Contlon alias Grontolonagh, of Ballyngarry’, was pardoned in 1585, both being described as ‘gentlemen’. In 1631, ‘Richardus Contlone de Krycontlone’ and ‘Joannes Browne, alias Browne de Krybrownighe’ were among the signatories to a petition to Rome to have the great Dominican, Daniel (Dominic) O Daly, made bishop of Ardfert. These and other such references indicate that the areas held by the two families were known as Críoch Bhrúnach and Críoch Chontlúnach respectively, and that Browne’s Castle was probably called Dún Brúnach, showing that the racism of the early conquest gave way in time to assimilation. As this is hurling country, the tradition recorded by the late E. J. Herbert that ‘the green expanse of lawn before Castle Brown was another goaling field’ is noteworthy, given the enthusiasm with which the Normans in general appear to have taken to the game. The Brownes lost what were left of their lands at the time of Cromwell, when Clashmelcon, Ardoughter and Ardagh, held by John Browne, ‘deceased Irish papist’, were granted to Lord Colooney. If, as seems likely, the Castle was built in the fifteenth century, it may have been occupied for less than two hundred years: the Cromwellian Civil Survey of 1654–6 states in relation to Clashmelcon that there was ‘a short butt of a castle on the premises’. Nevertheless, substantial ruins remained at the beginning of the twentieth century. WESTROPP’S DESCRIPTION In 1908 the noted antiquarian Thomas Johnson Westropp (1860–1922) made a detailed examination of the ruins and published his findings in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 40 (1910), as part of his study of the ‘Promontory forts and similar structures in the County Kerry’; the material printed below (including the photograph and plans) is taken from pages 100 and 110–12 of that publication. Sadly, Westropp’s fears for the survival of ‘the best preserved of the towers on the coast from the Shannon to Barrow’ were well founded: very little now remains. His report, which refers to two earlier accounts, one in the Ordnance Survey Letters of 1841 and the other by Mary Agnes Hickson in 1880, is as follows. A long bohereen brings us past two fairly perfect forts, the western with a souterrain, across a field, to the old brown ruin on the cliff amidst lovely scenery. In a little bay to the North rises the great square pillar of the ‘Kippen Rock’ from a low reef covered at high tide.1 Beyond is the wide Shannon Estuary, and to the south and west are the dark lines of rampart-like red sandstone cliffs and ‘beaked 1As in 1880, so now, the inhabitants descend the cliff, and raise seaweed by a primitive windlass (a saltier of timber), over which runs a rope tied to a horse. 2 promontories’, boldly stratified, pierced with great caves, and fringed with silver spray. This lovely coast is almost unknown, even to visitors to Ballybunion, for want of a road running near to it. THE CASTLE. – Browne’s Castle stands to the north-west of a straight fosse across the neck of a tapering headland, on which are the foundations of at least five houses. The fosse is usually 12 feet wide, and 6 feet deep with no outer mound, and but slight trace of an inner one. The archaic name ‘Clashmelchon’, and the belief that the Clash was this very trench, favour the view that Browne’s Castle (like Dunlecky, Cloghansavaun, Pookeenee, and Ballybunnion) was a promontory fort before the castle was built. There was no gangway, but the track of an old road down the field crosses the fosse at the S.-W. face of the tower, where probably there was a drawbridge. The castle itself is an oblong building 36 feet long; the base has a strong batter, which accounts for the length being given as 33 feet 9 inches by the O.S. Letters and 31 feet by 21 feet by Miss Hickson. We checked our dimensions on a second visit, and find that the ‘eastern’ and ‘western’ sides are 35 feet 8 inches to 36 feet, and the ‘northern’ and southern 22 feet 8 inches outside. The door is to the ‘north’, and, with the vault and ‘murder hole’ of the porch, has been quite destroyed since 1880, when Miss Hickson found the sockets for the hinges and bar intact. In 1841, there was a chiselled arch of brown sandstone, at some height above the ground, which was probably a window, but was regarded as a door. In 1908, we only found two stones, the half head of a pointed ‘arch’, made of gray slaty stone, and a jamb of greenish stone. Since then some of the vaulting and two patches of wall at the ‘north’ end have fallen, and much is ready to follow. 3 Entering, we find the broken spiral stair to the left and the porter’s lodge to the right. The latter is vaulted, and is only 5 feet 7 inches long and 4 feet 6 inches deep, lit by two loopholes, the ‘northern’ neatly chamfered and recessed, with lintelled heads and splays. The porch is 12 feet deep from the outside to the inner room. The stair led to the upper floor, crossing by the vaults to the ‘north-west’ angle; another stair ascended to the top main story, and probably to the roof. The turrets, named in 1841 and 1880, have left no trace, but the ‘Letters’ are often wrong in usage of architectural terms. In the main part were two stories under a vault, and one above it; the rooms are 19 feet by 11 feet 8 inches. The basement had a large window to the ‘south’, and others, deeply recessed, to either side, with smaller lights beside them. The upper floor rested on rude stones and plain rounded corbels; it was lit by plain lintelled window, corresponding to those below, all defaced and the south end half gone; there was also an ambry. The vault is somewhat rounded, and, like those of the ‘lodge’ and the windows, was turned over wicker. The top room has got defaced gaps to the sides; the whole ‘south’ end and the upper parts of its walls are destroyed. There are no fireplaces, and the side walls are 5 feet 6 inches thick. In 1841 side walls extended northward from the tower along the edge of the fosse; some 20 feet of it were standing in 1880. The foundations were being dug out in 1908, and have been quite removed. The ‘Letters’ say these side walls were 60 feet high, probably a mistake for 6 feet. Soon, if the present systematic destruction continues, this interesting coast mark and the best preserved of the towers on the coast from the Shannon to Barrow must vanish, and the ‘clash’ alone remain to mark its site. In the garth lie five house sites; the sea has cut parts of them away, and the headland is now barely 225 feet long; the walls are 3 feet thick. The first site lies 48 feet ‘westward’ 2 from the tower, and is 18 feet wide; the sea has destroyed the low cliff with its ‘southern’ end. The second is 93 feet from the castle, 29 feet from the ‘northern’, and 12 feet from the ‘southern’ cliff; it is 33 feet wide and 57 feet long. The third is 201 feet from the peel and 24 feet from the broken end of the headland, beyond which flat reefs show how far the sea has cut away the rock. The fourth side lies on the ‘north’ cliff and had two rooms. The fifth lay near the tower on the old inner mound to the north. Outside the fosse, opposite the castle, is the foundation of a cottage. All are probably later than the sixteenth century. 2The axis of the tower really lies somewhat north-east and south-west instead of north and south; we use the simpler terms for convenience.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 01:58:27 +0000
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