Mocollop Castle, Co. Waterford:
A history of a medieval castle
Niall C.E.J. O’Brien
Chapter one
Location map of Mocollop with the surrounding castles and towns
A writer for the Dublin Penny
Journal in 1834 said that the castle “has at present a very picturesque
appearance when viewed in almost any direction but particularly across the
river”. Today, one hundred and eighty years on, the view from the south side of
the river is still the best view, especially at about three in the afternoon on
a sunny day in summer. On such days, with the sun shining
on the stonework, the whole castle comes alive and the beauty of the scene
gives the appearance of a building just recently built. Yet it’s history is
quite old and interesting.
The name of Mocollop means the
“plain of the cattle”. The history of the castle is the story of the Norman
invasion and colonisation of Ireland. Dermot MacMurrough, the deposed king of
Leinster, invited the Normans to Ireland in
1167. Yet they had an interest in the country since at least 1155.[1] In
that year the only English Pope, Adrian IV, granted a papal bull allowing the Normans to invade and conquer Ireland . Adrian IV was a good
friend of King Henry II of England .[2]
King Henry II arrived in Ireland in 1171 to establish his authority over
the Normans
lords and to receive submissions from the Irish kings. In the course of his
travels around the country he visited Lismore for talks with the bishop of
Lismore who was the Papal Legate to Ireland at the time and thus an
important man to have on the English side.[3] It
is unlikely that a castle stood at Mocollop in 1171. When Raymond “le Gros”
Fitzgerald sacked Lismore in 1173 in order to get funds to pay his troops no
impression is given for the existence of Mocollop Castle
In 1175, one year after
“Strongbow” suffered a heavy defeat at Thurles; the Normans had sufficiently
recovered their position to declare all the land between Waterford and
Dungarvan as crown property. Two years later, in 1177, this area was extended
as far as Lismore. The royal land was further extended along the north side of
the River Blackwater to near the present county boundary or to where the Araglin River
meets the Blackwater
River
It is possible by or shortly
after 1177 that a motte and bailey type castle was built on the Round Hill,
just east of Lismore. The nature of this structure is unknown as no
archaeological excavation has ever taken place to determine the type of castle.
It did not stay long in perfect condition according to the Annals of Leinster.
In 1181 Cuilén O Cuilén and O’Faoláin, king of the Déisi, marched on Lismore
and razed the castle there. In the battle they killed sixty to eighty Norman soldiers and went
on to take all the castles in the Déisi and Ossory.[6]
After this set back, the Normans got
reinforcements from England
and re-established control of present-day County Waterford Ireland and in the course of his
travels visited Lismore. There he ordered a stone castle to be built on the
site of the present Lismore
Castle Waterford .
It is possible that some
structure was built at Mocollop around this time of 1185. If such was the case
the building would be of timber and any trace of it would lie within the
foundations of the present castle. This timber castle lasted for a number of
years and was not replaced by a stone building until about 1220. Without
documentary evidence to confirm the existence of a timber castle or to say for
sure that the stone structure was built in 1220 we are reliant of archaeological
and architectural evidence.
The core of Mocollop Castle Tower
of London and Trim
Castle in County Meath France in the late 12th
century. King Philip Augustus of France had a special engineer corp.
for the construction and maintenance of these rounds keeps.[8]
Ground plan of Mocollop Castle
The donjon never caught on in England but Wales has a few good examples which
were built from about 1150 to 1250.[9]
The English possessions in modern France contain excellent examples
of the donjon. The castle of Château Gaillard (1191) on the River Seine north of Paris is possibly the
finest of this castle type. It stood on the boundary of Normandy and was the principle gate way into
the English province.
In Ireland there are a limited number
of donjon type castles. Dundrum Castle in County down was built around 1195,[10]
while Nenagh Castle ,
County Tipperary
Another common feature of
Mocollop with Nenagh and The Hook is that they all have the stairway built
within the thickness of the donjon outer wall. All three stairways travel up in
an anticlockwise direction.[13] The
common features to all three structures would suggest that Mocollop is
contemporary with Nenagh and The Hook and the same building firm may have been
involved with all three. The close association between Mocollop and The Hook is
further seen in the size of both buildings. Both have an external diameter of
around 12.4 meters and an overall height of about 22 meters.[14]
Yet it is important to get
more evidence to show a construction date of around 1220. For this we look to
the wider political environment. The original castle at Mocollop was a ringwork
type structure. This involved a flat area surrounded by a bank with a ditch
outside that possibly full of water. A timber fence or sometimes a stone wall
would be placed upon the bank. The buildings inside were a mixture of timber
and stone construction. This castle survived until about 1220 because until
that time there was no need to build a stone castle on the site. The stone
castle at Lismore provided the chief defence location for west Waterford . In August 1220 the viceroy of Ireland ,
Henry de Londres, Archbishop of Dublin, issued an order to restore Lismore to
cathedral city status.[15]
Since about 1197 the Bishop of
Waterford had been attempting to take over the Diocese of Lismore. At that time
Waterford city
and the barony of Gaultier formed a diocese on its own and was under Norman
influence. The rest of County Waterford and a large part of south Tipperary
along with Kilworth, County Cork was part of the Diocese of Lismore with
Lismore as the cathedral centre. This diocese was under Irish influence.[16]
In 1204 Lismore was confirmed
by the Irish church as a separate diocese from Waterford but successive bishops of the city
would not accept the ruling. By 1219 Pope Honorius III had to issue a ruling
confirming the separate status of Lismore and got three English bishops to
persuade the viceroy in Dublin
to also confirm Lismore as a cathedral city.[17]
Part of the deal allowed for the bishop of Lismore to take over the stone
castle there to form his bishop’s palace. This move left the whole of
west Waterford
undefended and so promoted the building of a stone castle at Mocollop which was
outside the lands of the Lismore bishop and under the control of the civil
government.
Another influence to suggest a
date of about 1220 for Mocollop is in the person of Thomas Fitz Anthony. [Link to article = about Thomas Fitz Anthony Article] Thomas Fitz Anthony was
sheriff of County
Waterford Leinster under William Marshal, 1st
Earl of Pembroke.[18] This
William Marshal also owned the town of New
Ross and Hook Head. It was this William who in around
1218 commissioned the building of the lighthouse as an aid for ships coming to
New Ross.[19]
Marshal’s own castle at Pembroke in Wales was of the round donjon type
built around 1190.[20] Thomas Fitz Anthony was
therefore well aware of the donjon type castle and the builders of same. Thus
when he needed a new castle to defend west Waterford the donjon came
to Mocollop.
Around the donjon at Mocollop
were four square towers of which three remain. This design was repeated, or
copied from, the donjon at Gowran, County
Kilkenny
All these round keeps like
Mocollop were at the end of the fashion cycle. Within a few years the donjon
type castle was no longer in fashion. From 1225 onwards people built the
keep-less castle. Local examples of this type are at Mogeely and Aghern on the
River Bride. In this type of castle all the buildings were constructed around
the inside of the outer wall while the circle of the court was left empty. The
weakness of the donjon was that once the outer walls were breeched that donjon
was not effective enough to defend itself. The keep-less castle concentrated
all its energy on strengthen the outer wall especially the weak point of the
gateway and prevent entry.
The gateway of Mocollop had a
drawbridge with a portcullis behind. A timber causeway led away from the
drawbridge towards the modern road. It is possible that the course of the
Blackwater was slightly altered to provide a watery moat around the castle.
Inside the gateway tower was a small rectangular enclosure with a small doorway
between the round keep and the south range of buildings. The visitor is now in
a large rectangular enclosure with a square tower at the north-east and
south-east corners. The round keep had no doorway on the ground floor. Instead
the visitor climbed a outside stone stairway travelling clockwise up the tower.
Over the small doorway mentioned above the stairway turns 180 degrees and the
visitor is now climbing up the outside of the round keep in an anticlockwise
direction. At the north-east side of the round keep the visitor bends down as
he passes through the outer wall of the keep. The stairway now continues in an
anticlockwise direction up inside the keep and continues in this way up to the
roof level. Vanished doorways led into the different floor levels while a
wooden stairway inside the keep led down into the ground floor.
The gate-house of Mocollop with the donjon keep behind.
To give greater defence to Mocollop Castle County Cork ,
were attached to Mocollop manor and became part of medieval County Waterford Mocollop
Castle
Yet another important townland
was needed from south of the river to give around security for Mocollop. To see
any approaches from the north the townland of Ballydorgan was needed. This
present day County Cork townland was joined to medieval County Waterford
Chapter two
If documentation about the
construction of Mocollop is non-existent then sourcing any documents on the
castle’s later history is just as difficult. The destruction of the Earldom of
Desmond towards the end of the 16th century by two wars with the
burning and looting of many castles caused many documents to vanish forever.
Further losses occurred in the succeeding centuries culminating with the
destruction of the Public Record Office during the Civil War of 1922-23 means
that we are left with very few documents. The writings of antiquaries help fill
the gaps.
We know that Sir Robert le
Poer held the County
Waterford land of Whitechurch
near Cork city
and may have given that place his name. Philip was said to be an ancestor of
the Doneraile historian Lieutenant Colonel James Grove White.[24]
At what time and by what means
did the White family acquire Mocollop is unknown. The three usual options are
by way of marriage, purchase or by gift of the crown.
In October 1285 Philip White
of Mocollop and William Terry paid a half mark to the Dublin Exchequer for the
pledge of Walter White.[25]
The reason for this pledge is unknown but it possibly was to keep the peace or
as insurance to fulfil a legal obligation. In May 1291 the vill of Mocollop
paid 60s for allowing the escape of Richard Mariscis. The vill paid a further
40s in November 1291 for the same offence.[26] At
that time the local manor was the first stage in the judicial process as well
as been a landed estate. Local manors often placed local law breakers in their
own local jail or secured facility. If a prisoner escaped the local vill or
township was fined for allowing the escape when they should have had better
incarceration facilities.
Philip White had two sons the
younger of whom got four carucates of land in the parish of Ballyclogh, near
Mallow. The elder son called Alan White got Mocollop along with other lands in County Cork
The north side of Mocollop Castle showing L to R the north-east tower, the keep and the gate-house.
In 1298 William Fitz William
de Barry got Elena White to transfer the manors of Ardonoyth and
Talaghocorkeran, County
Cork
Having said the above there is
a reference in the Carew Manuscripts to Lord Barry claiming the possession of
Mocollop in 1229 as his inheritance.[28]
This needs further research as William Fitz Philip de Barry, Lord of Olethan in
Ireland continued to hold
his ancestral castle of Maynaurpir castle near Pembroke in Wales . The similar spelling of both
locations, especially when trying to read abbreviated Latin hand writing that
is over 700 years old, makes further research important before passing judgement.
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Link to chapters three and four = Chapters three and four
[Link to chapters five and six = Chapters five and six]
[Link to chapters seven and eight = Chapters seven and eight]
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[Link to chapters seven and eight = Chapters seven and eight]
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[7] Giraldus Cambrensis, Expugnatio
Hibernica: The English conquest of Ireland
[8] Rene Huyghe, Byzantine and
Medieval Art (Hamlyn, Middlesex, 1974), p. 337
[9] William Colfer, ‘The tower of Hook
[10] Peter Harbison, Guide to
National and Historic Monuments of Ireland
[11] Brian J. Hodkinson, ‘Excavations in the gatehouse of Nenagh Castle
1996 & 1997’, in Journal of the
Tipperary Historical Society, 1999, p. 178
[12] William Colfer, ‘The tower of Hook
[13] William Colfer, ‘The tower of Hook
[14] William Colfer, ‘The tower of Hook
[18] Ciarán Parker, ‘Local
Government in County
Waterford
[19] William Colfer, ‘The tower of Hook
[21] Mary Moran, ‘The Agars of Gowran (Lords Clifden and Callan)’, In the Shadow of the Steeple, vol. 2
(1990), p. 112
[24] James Grove White, ‘Ancestors of the White family’, in the Journal
of the Waterford and South East Archaeological Society, vol. 7 (1901), p. 101
[25] H.S. Sweetman (ed.), Calendar
of documents relating to Ireland
(5 vols. Kraus-Thomson , Liechtenstein
[26] H.S. Sweetman (ed.), Calendar
of documents relating to Ireland
(5 vols. Kraus-Thomson , Liechtenstein
[28] J.S. Brewer & William Bullen (eds.), Calendar
of Carew manuscripts at Lambeth (Liechtenstein,
1974 reprint), vol. 5, p. 370
