Kinnitty Castle, Co. Offaly - a photo on Flickriver

            Located on the foothills of the Slieve Bloom Mountains, the former Castle Bernard is a landmark structure in the area and enjoys commanding views across the surrounding countryside. This striking castle was built c.1833 by the Pain Brothers, important advocates of the Gothic Revival in Ireland and architects of Mitchelstown Castle. An immense edifice, it displays architectural motifs typical of the style including tall chimneystacks, gabled elevations, castellated towers and parapets, battered walls and labels to windows. Indeed the castle has not merely undergone Gothic Revival styling but instead is a celebration of the style. Built for T. Bernard Esq., the estate played, and still does, an important role in the economic development of the nearby village of Kinnitty. The castle was burnt by retreating republicans in July 1922 but was rebuilt with compensation and further improved and embellished. Now in use as a hotel, the interior survives much altered. The tenth-century high cross to the front site of the castle contributes an archaeological significance to the site.
Detached Tudor style four-bay two-storey over basement with attic storey former country house, built c.1833, with octagonal castellated three-stage corner tower to south-west and projecting entrance porch. Incorporating earlier castle. Burnt in July 1922 and subsequently rebuilt. Pitched slate roofs to gabled front elevation bays with tall moulded limestone chimneystacks, decorative finials to gables and cast-iron rainwater goods. Ashlar limestone walls with castellated parapet, carved limestone plinth course and continuous string course to parapet. Battered walls to basement level. Square-headed window openings with tooled limestone and sandstone label mouldings, chamfered surrounds and punched limestone sills. Castellated box bay to second bay from north-east rising from basement level to first floor with chamfered stone mullions. Oriel window above entrance added at later date. Single-storey castellated entrance porch with diagonal buttresses surmounted by pinnacles with crockets and finials. Tudor arched opening to porch with label moulding accessed rendered porch with ribbed ceiling, niches to side walls and tooled limestone bell surround and post box flanking door. Square-headed door opening with chamfered limestone surround and label moulding, sandstone threshold and timber double doors. Tenth-century sandstone High Cross to front site. Wrought-iron double gates with spear head finials and ha ha wall to front site.
Several architectural features are visible in a stretch of North-South wall forming the West side of a courtyard at the rear of the 19th century house known as Castle Bernard. There are 3 windows inserted into this wall one of which is a plain rectnagular flat headed window, the other two are twin light mullioned ogee headed windows one of which has an external hood-mould visible. It is not clear if these features are original to this wall or if they were taken from the medieval church in the village of Kinnitty and inserted into the courtyard wall of Castle Bernard in the nineteenth century. A hole was dug in the South-East corner of the courtyard at the rear of the 19th century house known as Castle Bernard in 1982. The hole revealed traces of a human burial which may have belonged to a burial ground although no evidence for other burials was revealed in the sections of the excavated hole. Inside this hole there was evdience for an earlier wall at a depth of 0.58m of a possible building underneath the 19th century courtyard wall.
   

Taken on: April 2, 2022

Tags:

Kinnitty

Castle

Offaly

Slieve

Bloom

Mountains

Bernard

1833

Pain

Brothers

High

Cross

Window

artefacts

Gothic

Revival

burnt

Hotel

Nikon

Nikkor

D500

Samsung

Galaxy

April

2022 « less

Sets appears in: • Kinnitty Castle

Stats: 411 views