House - fortified house, Castlereban North, Co. Kildare
The remains of a 17th-century fortified house at Castlereban North in County Kildare tell a story of architectural evolution spanning several centuries.
House - fortified house, Castlereban North, Co. Kildare
The structure was built into an earlier castle, with its ivy-covered southern end projecting westward from the southwest corner of the original building. The surviving walls showcase the defensive yet domestic nature of these fortified houses that dotted the Irish landscape during troubled times.
The southern wall stretches nearly six metres from east to west and rises three storeys high, extending over the castle’s original southern wall. Each floor features impressive hood-moulded windows with mullions and transoms, architectural details that speak to both the wealth and security concerns of its builders. The western wall, measuring just over five metres, also originally stood three storeys tall, though its northern end has been reduced to a single storey where a modern wall now creates a lean-to shed. A large double door marks the southern end of this wall, though it remains inaccessible today.
Later additions reveal how the site continued to evolve after its military importance waned. An 18th or 19th-century rectangular building, measuring roughly 14 by 6 metres with walls a metre thick, was built against the castle’s southern end. This single-storey structure features a doorway in its south wall and a modern double doorway on the west side, above which sits a rather charming carved stone depicting a cheerful, wigged figure; perhaps a nod to the Georgian era’s lighter architectural sensibilities. While traces of a defensive fosse, or ditch, were documented about 40 metres to the west-southwest in 1987, these earthworks have since become invisible at ground level, their presence now preserved only in archaeological records.