Constance Louisa Adams

The town of Mallow is situated on the River Blackwater, seventeen miles north-north-west of Cork, in the Barony of Fermoy.

The ruins of the castle are to the south of the town upon rising ground commanding the river. They consist of a great rectangular building running north and south, and measuring about 80 feet in length and 30 in breadth on the inside. It has thirty-one Tudor windows, which are generally large and square, having two series of oblong lights, three or five in number, and a window on the north contains as many as eight.

The structure is unroofed, and the floors being of wood have almost entirely disappeared. It was defended by three towers on the western side. The round tower at the north-west angle contained a clock until the middle of the last century. The centre tower measures about 12 feet by 15, and its door-head is depressed. The south-west tower has a five-sided exterior, and inside the upper part is circular, and the lower portion pentagonal.

The eastern front of the castle has one tower, with a five-sided exterior likewise. In 1836 a portion of the east side of the castle fell. The whole of it is now extensively covered with ivy.

This building is supposed to be of the Tudor era, and it is likely to occupy the site of an older fortress, as there are still traces of foundations which do not seem to have been included in the plan of the present ruin.

The Manor of Mallow passed by exchange from the De Rupes or Roches into the hands of the Desmond FitzGeralds at the close of the thirteenth century.

Tradition states that the Tudor fortress was erected by the “Great Earl” of Desmond, as Garrett, the 15th Earl, who succeeded to the title in 1558, is usually styled. It seems, however, more probable that it was built by his even greater father, James, who was Lord High Treasurer of Ireland.

MALLOW CASTLE.

It remained in the Desmond possession until the forfeiture of their princely estates in 1584.

At this time it was in the hands of Sir John of Desmond, the Earl’s son, who was overtaken near Castlelyons and killed by a former servant of his own. His body was hung over one of the gates of Cork for some years, and his head sent to Dublin Castle.

The following description of the stronghold is taken from an inquisition held at this time on the Manor of Mallow:—

“One castle containing in itself two small courts and one great barbican, namely, where the howse standeth the enterance in is on the north side ffyrste into one of the said courts, and then turninge one the lefte hande ye enter by a doore, beinge in a highe wall into the Balne or Barbican, which is reasonable large, and then goinge a little way, turninge one the lefte hande, have ye enterance by an other stone wall, whereas the castell or howse standeth, the lower rooms whereof ar sellers vauled over. And in the wall one the lefte hande there be stay res of stone of xii stepps in heyght that leadeth one the right hande into the Hall, which is about lx foote longe and xxvi foot wyde, within the howse, and is deepe, with a highe roofe, the Tymber wereof seemeth to be sounde, and is covered with thacke, some thinge decayed at the north ende; towards the west corner there is a square buyldinge vaulted as thother is, but not so broade, and riseth somewhat higher than the roofe of the hall in which, over the sellor, ar fower stronge roomes that may be made meete for lodgings: the uppermost, savinge one, is vaulted.”

The siege during the Desmond rebellion must have caused the castle to need repair, and even at subsequent dates it seems to have been in a ruinous condition.

At first after this, the district of Mallow was assigned to Pelham, H.M. Attorney-General, and Sir Thomas Norreys, who was holding the place, writes to Burghley in 1587: “I understand Mallow (a place which I have hitherto had keeping of) is assigned to H.M. Attorney-General, who doth little esteem it. I crave to be admitted an associate in Co. Cork, and still keep that place, which I doubt not the Attorney-General will easily yield to. I affect not the place for any special goodness, but having held it so long am the more unwilling to leave it, and, if I may obtain it, will endeavour the best service I can.”

The same year Sir John Norreys, President of Munster, writes from Utrecht complaining that the honour of his office brings little land with it, and asking that Mallow might be granted to him.

He it was who settled the crown of Portugal on the royal house of Braganza, and Edmund Spencer described him in some of the lines of his “Fairy Oueen.”

In 1588 Sir Thomas Norreys received a grant of the castle and lands from Elizabeth.

Here, in Sir Thomas’s arms, died his brother, the great Sir John Norreys, in 1597, of old wounds which had been neglected and turned to gangrene. One of many fables told regarding his death is that the devil, dressed in black, appeared while he was playing cards, and claimed his soul on the spot in fulfilment of an old bargain.

During the Tyrone rebellion in 1598-99 Norreys had his English sheep stolen from Mallow, and his park wall broken down, so that the deer roamed loose.

Upon the restored young Earl of Desmond’s returning to Ireland in 1599 he spent much of his time at Mallow, where he was said to be in love with Lady Norris, widow of Sir Thomas.

The Attorney-General writes in 1606: “The first night we lodged at Mallow, a house of my Lady Norries, which is a well-built house, and stands by a fair river in a fruitful soil, but it is yet much unrepaired and bears many marks of the late rebellion.” At this time Elizabeth Norreys, heiress to the estate, was a king’s ward, and resided with her mother in the castle.

In 1613 a fresh patent was granted to Dame Elizabeth Jephson, and her heirs for £50 paid by her husband, Sir John Jephson, Knight, she having inherited her father’s estate. The grant included the castle, manor, and town of Mallow, Short Castle, alias Castle-Gar, &c.

In 1636 the Earl of Cork made an offer for the manor, but he did not come to terms with the owners.

Short Castle, which was on the north side of the town, was in charge of Lieutenant Williamson in 1641, when Lord Mountgarret marched against Mallow, while the larger fortress was placed in charge of Arthur Bettesworth and two hundred men by Captain Jephson.

After many assaults and several breaches, Short Castle was forced to surrender, which its commander did on terms. There are several versions of the following story.

After the castle’s fall its defender and his men were refreshing themselves in a public-house in the town, when an officer and man belonging to Mountgarret’s force entered with a block and sword, stating they had come to behead them. Lieutenant Williamson caught the sword up with one hand and the officer’s hair with the other, and dragged him to the walls of the larger stronghold, where, dismissing him with a kick, he and his men joined the other garrison.

The Castle of Mallow was taken by the Earl of Castlehaven in 1645, and almost reduced to ruins.

In 1666 there seems to have been an attempt made to restore it. Lord Orrery, writing to the Duke of Ormond in this year, says: “This bridge is at Mallow, where there is a castle of good strength if it had a little reparation, and is one of the greatest passes and thoroughfares in this province, and if seized on by any enemy would, in effect, divide the country into two parts.”

During the scare of the French invasion the Grand Jury presented money to repair it, but the Judge seems to have reserved his decision on the matter.

Major-General Sgravenmore sent Colonel Doness to destroy the bridge and reconnoitre the castle in 1689.

Norreys was added to the family surname Jephson in 1838, and some years later Sir Denham Jephson Norreys erected a mansion in Elizabethan style close to the old fortress. Sir Bernard Burke remarks of it: “Here are mullioned windows, pointed gables, tall chimneys, and all those various intricacies of building which characterised our noblest seats in the days of the Virgin Oueen; somewhat fantastic, it is true, but picturesque in the extreme.”

The manor and castle are still in the possession of this family, Mrs. Atherton-Jephson-Norreys being the present representative.