Fortified Houses

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In Ireland at the end of the sixteenth and beginning of the seventeenth century the fortified House, along with stronghouses, developed as a replacement for the tower house. Fortified Houses were often rectangular, or sometimes U or L-shaped, three-storey structures with high gables and chimney stacks and large windows with hood mouldings. Some examples have square towers at the corners. The interiors were relatively spacious with wooden partitions and numerous fireplaces. In a number of cases fortified houses were built onto pre-existing tower houses. Fortified houses were protected by gun fire from the angle towers and bartizans and were also provided with bawn walls with gun loops, towers and protected gateways. Fortified houses were built throughout Ireland by large landowners from a variety of backgrounds such as the Old English Earl of Clanricarde who built Portumna House in Co. Galway; Gaelic Lords such as MacDonogh MacCarthy, Lord of Duhallow, who built Kanturk Castle in Co. Cork and Cromwellian Soldiers such as Sir Charles Coote who built Rush Hall in Co. Offaly.