Page:Archaeologia volume 38 part 1.djvu/186

162 been vaults over each story of the main building, but in the side towers only over the ground-floor room and near the top, with three stories between these two vaults, and one low story above the upper vault. The chief apartment or hall was on the first floor, and the kitchen by the side of it, on the same level; the fireplace remains, and several recesses in the walls for cupboards. The walls are not less than thirteen feet thick; there are not so many passages in them as usual, but several garderobes; the windows are small and square-headed. There is a large bailey, inclosed by a curtain wall, with ten round towers in the enceinte, all low and uniform; one larger than the rest is the gatehouse, and has the barbican nearly perfect. This gatehouse is later work than the rest, probably of the thirteenth century; the windows are larger; it has a fireplace and a garderobe on each floor. There is also a smaller back gatehouse less perfect This castle was built by Walter de Lacy in the time of Henry II. It is said, in the Chronicles of Ireland, to have been destroyed by Roderick O'Connor, King of Connaught, in 1220, and rebuilt the same year; but this could only mean that it was taken and dismantled, and was restored to a state of defence, probably stronger than before, by the addition of the new gatehouse. Such a mass of building once erected could not easily be destroyed, and certainly could not be rebuilt in a year. The same remark will apply to many other Norman castles and churches. The chroniclers always magnified the doings of their own days, and often described a building as "re-edified," which, on examination, we find to have been only repaired and restored to use.

The small decayed town of was the chief harbour of Dublin throughout the middle ages, and down to a comparatively late period, until superseded by its more flourishing neighbour, now called Kingstown. It contains two of the small square castles, or tower-houses, and the ruins of a small church, of the twelfth century, and at a short distance from it is a more important house or castle, called Bullock Castle. The two towers appear to be of the twelfth century, but may possibly be later; they are very plain, with small windows, some round-headed, others square. The parapet of one is plain and solid, with a row of holes under it to let off the water, a general fashion in Ireland, sometimes with watershoots and sometimes not. This tower has a square stair-turret corbelled out at the south-west corner, a half octagon garderobe turret, also corbelled out, on the north side, and a chimney and a small bartizan projecting from the parapet. Is still inhabited; the ground floor is vaulted, above which are two stories with wooden floors. The second tower is very