ABSTRACT

If we take as the standard for important later thirteenth-century castles across Europe that they should deploy the defensive and domestic features outlined in the last chapter (the towered curtain, twin-towered gate house, great hall and one or more suites of chambers), then there are many castles in Ireland which do not fit the standard. There are some with good dating, either from documents or stylistic details, to show that they belong to the latter part of the thirteenth century, so that this cannot be the result of a time difference between the castles in the two countries. It cannot be that the builders of castles in Ireland were unaware of those features, for we have seen them in the last chapter systematically deployed through the period. That they do not belong to the English pattern must be a matter of deliberate choice. These divergent castles fall into two groups, based on physical criteria: a few with massive great towers or donjons, and a larger number which simply lack the expected gate house or mural towers along their enclosing curtain walls.