Chapter 5: Coill Beag to Inis Uí Chuinn

• Parish of Cairrgín
  
• Cahergal Fort
  
• Killursa
  
• Coill Bheag to Inis Uí Chuinn
  
• [no title]
  
• Rosserilly
  
• Shrule
  

Not far away, but in the parish of Killursa is the castle of Eanach Caoin. It is a square keep, the outer walls of which are perfect, except upon the north side. That upon the lake or west side is forty-six feet long, and that on the south, here represented, is fifty feet. There are also some remains of the outer enclosure, and the whole is surrounded by a very beautiful park of the finest land, ornamented with some aged ash. Of all the castles surrounding Loch Coirib, this would appear from its masonry to be the oldest; for, although it has not been dilapidated for building purposes, it is not possible to find in it or around it a single dressed stone of any description; the quoins, door-ways, and window openings being, with the walls, both within and without, all formed of undressed stone.At the north-west corner there is a square tower, and probably a similar one existed on the north-east. All the outer walls of this structure are six feet thick, and contain passages leading to the upper apartments and the parapet. Some of the arches of the windows and doors are circular, and others pointed; but all ingeniously constructed with stones to which a hammer or chisel was never applied--in like manner as in the arch of the east window in the beautiful old church of Cross, and as we find in other localities where the great abundance and variety in form of the surrounding limestone afforded ample materials for any description of building, and the ingenuity of the artists was equal to the task of rendering them subservient to architectural purposes. Even to the present day, every man in this and the adjoining limestone districts is more or less a mason.

Among the structural peculiarities of this castle is that of having upon the outer face of the ground story small, low, arched apertures leading into guard rooms or sentry cells, but in other instances communicating with the walled passages above. The marking of the wattled centering upon which the arches were laid, so many centuries ago, shows the great strength of the mortar used at the time of their erection; for it is as hard and sharp as when the basket-work, on which it was raised, was removed; and in the upper apartment of the northwest tower the roof is perfectly flat.

As there is no stone now remaining at Annakeen to afford us a clue to the date of its erection, neither is there any history which throws much light upon the subject.That, however, it was a place of note in very early times, may be learned from the fact that Mac Uilliam Uachtar son of Sir William the Grey, and the progenitor of the Clan-Rickard, was called "Ulicus de Anaghkeen"; and certainly the architecture of the castle may with safety be ascribed to a date six and a half centuries ago. [fn45-1]