Cahir Castle (9/19)

[Chris]

Just a little heads up that this post is a little nerdy and if you want you can scroll straight down to the photos.

We visited our second castle today, Cahir Castle, about 20 minutes from home. Cahir, the name of the castle and the name of the town, is pronounced "Care." But with a little Colin-Farrell Irish brogue, almost like Cay-yer.

Despite being owned by the same Butler family for 600 years, this castle was quite different from Kilkenny Castle, because that one was converted into a magnificent baroque ducal palace, while this one was preserved as an unadorned military defense post. As impressive as both were, this one appealed to me a little more with my love of the fantasy genre - swords and knights and castles and and seigeworks. Admittedly, the castle was updated a little over time to account for muskets and cannons.

Built on solid rock on an island in a river, it was considered impregnable until the advent of cannons, and it was taken in 1599. 50 years later it also surrendered to Cromwell (/shakes fist) without a fight, but was largely ignored and was re-possessed by the Butlers 1-2 years later.

This picturesque and well-preserved castle has been in a slew of Hollywood movies and TV shows: Excalibur, Barry Lyndon, Green Knight, Last Duel, Braveheart (portcullis audio only), Valhalla, ...

Some fun castle facts (feel free to skip if you just want to jump to the photos):

• There was a crenelation tax on castles (crenelation is the rectangular up-and-down pattern often found atop castle walls). Crenels = fancier = wealthier = more taxes. We learned yesterday that there was also a "daylight tax" or "window tax" imposed in Ireland, with the same logic.
• Castles often intentionally have low doorways, especially at the entrance to the castle, because a person bending down is more vulnerable. I'll just say, despite all the warnings and the signs, and the warnings, and the signs, I cracked my noggin on low doorways twice.
• The goal of round towers was to eliminate corner blind spots
• Castles are often built with "murder holes" (meurtrière), or small holes in the ceilings of entryways or stairwells such that an archer above could kill someone below without warning.
• This castle also had a trap at the entrance, where invaders could get stuck between a set of doors, and then executed from above. Even the walls are slanted to maximize damage from dropped objects.
• Slightly different from murder holes are machicolations, which are hidden/shielded openings at the top of a castle wall that allow the pouring of rocks, fire, scalding sand, or scalding water onto invaders while not exposing yourself to enemy attack (picture below)
• The arrowslits that you may be familiar with were eventually complemented by musket holes (much smaller). It was interesting how many of the weapon holes are specifically aimed at whoever is knocking on the door. Not unlike a Ring camera. Fun fact: arrowslits were invented in the west by Archimedes.
• Circular stairways go up clockwise so that someone going up (invading) can't use their right-handed sword, but someone coming down (defending) can.
• Slightly inconsistent stair heights would be destabilizing for unfamiliar invaders, but familiar for defenders.
• The largest tower on this castle happened to also be a toilet (garderobe). Soldiers went up to a grate at the top and did their business. Once a year, the cesspit at the bottom of the tower was emptied via a small door. Other garderobes were directed outside the castle walls, or directly into the river.
• Since people rarely bathed (annually was common), clothes were hung at the top of the toilet tower - the natural gases released, like ammonia, were good at disinfecting the clothes, or at least chasing away the lice and fleas.

https://heritageireland.ie/places-to-visit/cahir-castle/ 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ytj79dCMXDE 

 

Cahir Castle

The portcullis entrance to the keep, with two machicolations (hidden dumping channels) above

Even the bushes are crenelated!

Another machicolation above the courtyard entrance arch.  You can't see this until you are under it.

The trap. If you make it through the portcullis (left) you get stuck at the gate (right) and then the portcullis (solid iron spikes) drops to seal you in, and then there are archers everywhere above you.

 

Annotated view of some defense mechanisms

A very detailed and animated model of the Seige of 1599

The path down to the well, which was another amazing resource of this castle - infinite water supply by being on the river.

Kate coming up from the well.

Our tour group (and another set of Giant Irish Elk (deer) antlers from 10,000 years ago).  Fun fact: the ornate fireplace on the right is made of styrofoam, and is a prop from the 2021 movie The Last Duel.

Green space outside with white embden geese.

Panorama of the courtyard, but it's less impressive if you can't rotate the image via phone.

How do we get home?  Note all signage in Ireland is in Irish (Gaelic) and English.