ABSTRACT
In 1236, Lady Rohesia de Verdon was reported to have built a castle in her lands in modern Co. Louth against the Irish (GDI, I, 2334): traditionally this new castle has been identified with the present Castle Roche, which was in existence by 1318 (42nd RDKPRI, 25). The castle is sited at the edge of an inland cliff, in effect a promontory (fig. 45). The end of the promontory is cut off by a rock-cut ditch to form the inner ward, the castle proper, with a large rectangular enclosure outside, surrounded by a stone wall and with the remains of at least one building visible in the grass: either the outer ward or a small borough settlement. The inner ward, behind the rock-cut ditch, is enclosed by a roughly triangular curtain wall, with a D-shaped tower at the northern angle (fig. 46). The existing buildings have been given different dates by different authorities. In particular, a tower around a deep pit approximately in the middle of the courtyard has been cited as evidence of a castle earlier than the bulk of the present visible remains (Stalley, 1971), but it has also been identified as evidence of a later structure (Buckley and Sweetman, 1991, 336). In fact, the remains are probably those of a well house, contemporary with the rest of the castle remains. Likewise, Leask (1936, 183) considered the tower at the north angle to be from a later period, because it is not bonded to the curtain wall behind it, a suggestion which is contradicted by the existence of doors in the curtain, leading to its upper floors. The straight joints visible here and at the junction of the curtain wall and the hall may be attributed to caution in building on a site close to the edge of a steep cliff. What we see are probably the remains of Rohesia’s castle.
