Brize (Brees) Castle ruin, County Mayo

            On a rocky knoll on a North South ridge, with the steepest fall of ground to South West overlooking a broad sweep of undulating grassland, is the ruin of a castle built at Brees in the second half of the 13th-century by the Anglo-Norman Prendergasts, who later adopted the Irish name, MacMorris or MacMorys. In 1574 the castle was in the possession of Walter oge MacMorris, chief of the clan, who was succeeded by Richard Mac Morys. At the Composition of Connacht in 1585 Richard Mac Morys was granted title under English law to this castle and a large tract of land in the barony of Clanmorris, and in December of that year he transferred ownership to Francis Barkley, Marshal of the Connacht. Subsequently the property came into the possession of John Moore, whose title was confirmed by a patent of King James I in 1607. The property remained with the Moore family until the late 19th century.
This greatly ruined castle consists of a sub-rectangular area c. 16m East West and 24m North South enclosed by a ruined masonry wall which encompasses the rocky knoll. The curtain wall is reduced to a low, sod-covered rubble bank on its inner face. Externally, the wall 2-3m high is built onto the scarped knoll slope, taking advantage of its steep slope. A short section of intact external wall face 2m high of roughly course limestone, incorporating remnants of a base batter, can be seen at North North East, and another remnant is evident at South. But elsewhere around the circuit the curtain wall is robbed of its stone facing, exposing the rubble core. At the South East corner of the curtain wall, a slight projection of the wall is flanked at East by a broken block of masonry with traces of vaulting; these features may indicate the location of a gateway or entrance tower.
In the interior of the enclosure, there are traces of a wall 5m South of the North curtain wall. A few meters South of this, the ephemeral outline of wall footings can also be traced for c. 3m extending South South East through the interior. These walls may preserve the outline of a rectangular building or hall built against the curtain wall on the East side.
Large lumps of displaced masonry lie on the knoll slope to South and South West of the castle. Relict cultivation ridges, and areas of past quarrying, are evident on the slopes of the knoll and the surrounding ridge.

   

Taken on: March 5, 2022

Tags:

Brize

Castle

County

Mayo

Anglo-Norman

masonry

Brees

Bree

Bri

13th-century

MacMorris

MacMorys

Walter

oge

chief

clan

Richard

Mac

Morys

Clanmorris

Francis

Barkley

Marshal

Connacht

John

Moore

Nikon

Nikkor

D500

March

2022 « less

Sets appears in: • Brize (Brees) Castle

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