Eadie, G. 2015. "Know you that serving folk be of three kinds'; Irish towers and the familia', in Oram, R. (ed) 'A house such as thieves might knock at'..... Donington: Shaun Tyas. 174-188 (original) (raw)
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From the mid-sixteenth century onwards fashions in building changed as Renaissance ideas were being introduced into Ireland, notwithstanding the consequences of various wars, rebellions and general upheaval of the period to the end of the seventeenth century. This meant that houses became more comfortable, more outwardly symmetrical in elevation and plan. Over the decades internal arrangements in houses and castles were transformed, with the great chamber taking precedence over the hall as the room of state. By the middle of the seventeenth century processional routes through the houses of the aristocracy gradually gave way to the flexible French arrangement of the appartement influenced by English court practice. This essay seeks to examine changes in building, plan, room usage and furnishings of the various types of high-status dwellings in Ireland during the period in question; ranging from the relatively small courtyard house, remodelling of earlier buildings and some few examples of newbuilds.
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Irish tower-houses, which are typically dated between c.1400 and c.1600 , are amongst the most common of upstanding archaeological monuments in Ireland, yet many points of contention persist amongst scholars as to their origin, date and function. One particular definition describes the tower-house as ‘a compact fortified house in which the hall is raised above the ground with one or more storeys above it’ . On a considerably smaller scale than the large curtain-walled castles of the thirteenth century, the tower-house was to provide the typical abode of the Gaelic and Anglo-Irish gentry of the fifteenth and sixteenth century . In construction the tower-house, in its simplest guise, was rectangular in plan and was up to six storeys in height with various defensive features including a vaulted roof over the ground floor, which was to theoretically guard against fire spreading to the upper reaches of castle. The ground floor was typically used for storing supplies and was often the first line of defence should the main door be breached, while the second storey provided the main hall, with the remaining storeys usually consisting of the private quarters. For further protection murder-holes were often present between the ground and first floors. The tower-house was sometimes protected by a walled-courtyard (Figs. 2 and 3), though this latter feature does not appear to have been universally constructed of stone and does not often survive into modern times. The study of bawn walls is very limited, as very little archaeological excavation has taken place outside of tower-houses. Significantly, the Civil Survey of the 1650’s mentions bawn walls at only 20% of the towers it lists . Although often regarded, not as true castles but rather as mere fortified houses, the type also includes examples on a very large scale such as those great tower-houses found in Counties Limerick, Clare, Galway and Cork . However, as Colm Donnelly points out, the term ‘tower-house’ is itself of nineteenth century origin and that contemporary historical sources regard these structures simply as ‘castles’ Although the subjects of demographic ethnicity and typology by regional distribution are touched upon in places, they are not specifically treated in this study.