Survey Data
Reg No
31906039
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Technical
Original Use
Hunting/fishing lodge
Date
1835 - 1840
Coordinates
185403, 305586
Date Recorded
05/09/2003
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached square-plan sporting lodge, built 1839, with castellated towers to angles and inner courtyard. Coursed rubble walls with tooled limestone walls with tooled limestone quoins and castellations. Battered walls to towers and entrance bay. Two two-stage towers to front angles and two four-stage towers to rear angles. Tudor-arch entrance with wrought-iron grid-like gates on wheels that open back into cavity in wall. Chamfered tooled limestone surround with date "1839" to keystone gives access to inner courtyard. Pointed-arch blind windows to side elevations. Five-bay two-storey house within outer walls with castellated parapet and random coursed limestone walls with dressings. Square-headed window openings with block-and-start surrounds and limestone sills. Bull's eye window above doorway with block-and-start surround. Pointed-arch window openings to rear elevation with one surviving cast-iron lattice window. Stone spiral stairs to northwest tower. Set in Cloontykilla Woods on shores of Lough Key. Landing place to north of building.
Appraisal
Cloontykilla Castle is located on the shores of Lought Key in a remote part of Cloontykilla Woods. Although now derelict, the sporting lodge was once a fanciful retreat for its owners, its crenellated walls enclosing a courtyard and a deceptively small house. The crenellated walls, slender turrets and portcullis-like gates recall romantic medieval castles and are striking features of the structure.