ABSTRACT
We may start with the castles which were the centres of the power of the new Earls of the fourteenth century. In Co. Limerick the Earldom of Desmond, as it was after 1329, was based on two fine castles: Newcastle West and Askeaton. In both cases they represent the expansion of Geraldine power from its original modest holding at Shanid (Empey, 1981) and both saw the construction in the fifteenth century of first-rate first-floor halls, in each case over earlier structures. The halls are linked by their windows: both employ paired lights with cinquefoiled ogee heads and a squared hood mould externally (fig. 104). The ends of both halls are marked by blank arcades carried on corbels, although the one at Askeaton is finely decorated, while both corbels and arch at Newcastle are plain (fig. 105). The upper end of the Askeaton hall, away from the entrance and leading to a chamber, is clearly demarcated by a window lighting it and overlooking the courtyard, which has the remains of good tracery which was of the same design as one of the windows at Askeaton Friary, founded by 1420, if not by 1400 (Gwynn and Hadcock, 1988, 242). The earlier (probably thirteenthcentury) chamber attached to the earlier ground-floor hall at Askeaton was also refurbished when the firstfloor hall was built. There are two small chambers attached to the hall at Newcastle (in the first and second floors of a small turret), but they lack fireplaces and latrines, and are too small to be considered as proper chambers for a lord.
