transforming townscapes. from burh to borough: the ... reviews-newbook… · ceived wisdom. this...

THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL NO 28: 2014-15 311

Transforming Townscapes. From Burh toBorough: the Archaeology of Wallingford,AD 800-1400.Authors: Neil Christie & Oliver Creighton,with Matt Edgeworth and Helena Hamerow.Publisher: The Society for Medieval Archaeol-ogy Monograph 35Size: 22 x 30cm. 489 pp. 30 colour plates &315 b&w illus.Published: Autumn 2013ISSN 0583-9106, ISBN 978-1-909662-09-4.Price: £45 (softcover)Available through Oxbow Books.

It is one thing to excavate; quite another topublish and analyse the results. It is onlyrecently that a number of interesting castleexcavations, excavated decades ago, have fi-nally been properly published. The authors ofthis monograph are to be congratulated fortheir speed in publishing the results of thismajor project, funded by the Arts and Human-ities Research Council; furthermore, they in-clude details of previously unpublishedexcavations in the town, as well as documenta-

ry evidence and other finds, to give as com-plete a view of the town’s development aspossible. The book is copiously illustrated,with numerous clear plans, charts diagrams,resistivity results and numerous photographsof finds (and archaeologists in trenches). Aswell as the lead authors there are contributionsby nearly forty specialists, including membersof The Wallingford Historical and Archaeo-logical Society (TWHAS), a very active localsociety which also provided human resourcesto assist with a range of activities, includingexcavating, pot washing and the extensiveresistivity surveying.

Wallingford, now in southern Oxfordshire,was the largest town in Berkshire in theDomesday survey, similar in size to Oxford,with a royal castle. But the town did notdevelop in the later middle ages and waseclipsed by Oxford and Reading. Thus itretained the ramparts of the Anglo-Saxonburh, castle site and even open spaces withinthe town, providing opportunities to study itsdevelopment. The book’s approach is broadlychronological, after two chapters introducingthe project and its methodologies.

Chapter 3 (Wallingford before the burh) notesthat Dorchester on Thames was the local Ro-man centre and, although there was an earlyAnglo-Saxon cemetery just outside the laterburh perimeter, and Wallingford’s name seemsrelatively early, the evidence suggests the burhwas founded on a largely undeveloped site.Chapter 4 (The emergent burh: early medievalWallingford) investigates probably the mostsignificant element of the project. Wallingfordwas part of Alfred the Great’s planned fortifica-tion system for Wessex; one of 33 forts record-ed in the Burghal Hidage. The burhs werespread across his kingdom, designed to securecommunications (including river crossings), of-fer refuges, and be centres for musters andstoring supplies. Wallingford is noteworthy be-cause its rating of 2,400 hides was the jointhighest within the Burghal Hidage list, the sameas Alfred’s capital Winchester. Unlike Win-chester, with its Roman city walls, Wallingfordwas a new foundation, so an important ques-

Transforming Townscapes. From Burh to Borough: the Archaeology of Wallingford, AD 800-1400

THE CASTLE STUDIES GROUP JOURNAL NO 28: 2014-15312

tion is why the site at Wallingford was selected(considered pp. 68-9). Wallingford’s earthendefences, with a managed water flow into itsditches, are the most impressive survivals ofthe burghal period (pp. 80-3). Its rampartsenclosed 43ha (106 acres) and its approxi-mately rectangular outline and rough grid planroads, showing it was a planned town, ledantiquaries to believe it was Roman. Theproject team excavated the ramparts, particu-larly around the area of the north gate, wherethey partially re-opened excavations of the1960s (not fully published at the time). Aswell as publishing the earlier work it enabledthem to re-interpret the findings. Bringing to-gether the limited evidence of buildings withinthe burh suggests the most densely occupiedarea was the south east quarter, alongside theThames, while the current open spaces withinthe ramparts on the west and north west seemto have been largely open in the pre-Conquestperiod, utilised for agriculture, markets, andprobably the occasional accommodation ofarmies and refugees.

Chapter 5 (Structures of power: the castle)considers the royal castle, founded soon after1066, when William the Conqueror crossedthe Thames at Wallingford on his approach toLondon. It was built in the north east quarterof the town, probably on a site mentioned(uniquely) in Domesday as having been previ-ously occupied by royal housecarls (pp. 149-50 ). The castle was held for Matilda and herson (the future Henry II) throughout the warsof Stephen’s reign, but by the later MiddleAges functioned as a palace, before beingdemolished in the 16th century. Royalistsre-fortified the site in 1643, though it surren-dered to Parliamentary forces in 1646 after ablockade. Today, the castle earthworks, withonly a few upstanding stone fragments, havethe unmistakeable form of a motte and bailey,albeit with extensive outworks. Analysis ofthe earthworks (by Michael Fradley) suggestsa complex series of developments throughoutthe Middle Ages, the significant impact of the1640s refortification, and even later changessuch as laying out formal gardens. Resistivity

surveys and excavation enable an outline phas-ing of the castle to be produced (pp. 215-7).

The current bridge over the Thames has beenmuch rebuilt but seems to retain a 12th centuryarch. Its timber predecessors may have beenpart of a burghal era plan to block Viking ships,with a military bridgehead on the east bank ofthe Thames (opposite the town). An excitingfind is the remains of a 12th century siege castleat Crowmarsh (and, tentatively, a second near-by), on the east bank, just beyond the boundaryof the bridgehead, sited to block the end of thebridge (pp. 229-36, in chapter 6: ApproachingWallingford castle and town). There is an inter-esting discussion on the three sieges of Walling-ford during Stephen’s reign, of 1139, 1146 and1152-3. All three were attempted blockadesutilising siege castles; the 1152-3 siege, the lastmajor action of the wars, definitely involved asiege castle at Crowmarsh (pp. 202-8).

The authors take a restricted view of the cas-tle’s military functions, referring to ‘two short,sharp bursts of violence’ (p. 202, repeated 215,397); the chapter 5 summary states: ‘The site’smilitary role was restricted to two sieges, in themid-12th-century ‘Anarchy’ and the mid17th-century English Civil War’ (p. 217). Analternative view is that at outbreaks of warduring the two centuries following the Con-quest records show the castle being preparedfor action, suggesting a continuing, probablylargely continuous, fundamental military capa-bility. The strategic rationale for siting thecastle at Wallingford is noted, and it wasfounded while the campaigns of the Conquestwere continuing (p. 151). It played a centralrole in the wars of 1139-53 (noted, of course,as a violent episode), ending as one of thestrongest castles in the kingdom. £60 wasspent strengthening it prior to the 1173-4 re-bellion (p 158), and under King John it ‘wasonce more revealed as a defensive stronghold’,‘a castle of growing defensive capability’. In1215-6 it was prepared for siege conditions(pp. 153-4), should Windsor castle have fallento the rebels. Henry III’s brother, Richard earlof Cornwall, spent lavishly on the castle, ap-parently transforming it into a ‘concentric



show-fortress’ (p. 155, 398; ‘show castle’ 217).The latter stages of Richard’s rebuilding coin-cided with increased political tensions in the1250s, so his planning may well have encom-passed defensive considerations as well asstyle and impressiveness. In 1264 Richard wascaptured by Simon de Montfort at the battle ofLewes and imprisoned in Wallingford castle.He was moved to Kenilworth after an unsuc-cessful surprise attack to release him. TheWaverley Annals report Simon de Montfortpartly losing support because he maintainedforeign troops in the castle garrisons at Dover,Windsor and Wallingford, which suggests deMontfort thought it of some significance, evenif not a first-rate fortress like the other two.

Chapter 7 (Religious landscapes: spaces, struc-tures and status) recounts the archaeologicalwork to learn more about the (archaeologicallyrather elusive) priory that occupied the north westquarter of the town, as well as the parish church-es, which declined in numbers over the centuries.Chapters 8 (Living, working and trading in medi-eval Wallingford) and 9 (Provisioning burh andborough: mint, markets and landscape) also try toestimate changes in the population. The mint wasimportant from the late 920s to 1125, and mayhave begun soon after the burh’s foundation inthe late 9th century.

The final chapter, 10 (Situating Wallingford),summarises the development of medievalWallingford and its failure to thrive. There arealso reflections on a number of themes anddebates about medieval urbanism, consideringcomparative sites. Issues concerning burhs,especially those in the Thames valley, are nat-urally to the fore, but there are also interestingobservations on the impact of the imposition(or otherwise) of urban castles on 11th centurytown development, questioning aspects of re-ceived wisdom. This chapter also includesideas on further lines of inquiry. Meanwhile,TWHAS continues their test pit programmeand another book, concentrating on the exten-sive documentary records of castle and town,is due out shortly.

Richard Hulme


Alan Sorrell: The Life and Works of anEnglish Neo-Romantic Artist (Paperback)

Sacha Llewellyn & Richard Sorrell (editors)Publisher: Sansom & CoPublication date: 29 Aug 2013Paperback: 208 pagesISBN-10: 1908326379 ISBN-13: 978-1908326379Price: £25.00

Alan Sorrell (1904-1974) was published tocoincide with the Sir John Soane’s Museum’saptly titled exhibition: ‘Alan Sorrell – A LifeReconstructed’. This book makes it possible atlast to assess the full scope of Sorrell’s workand the underlying poetic vision that runsthrough it. Comprising a series of essays thebook sets out to chart Sorrell’s life andachievements, as well as illustrating the rangeand diversity of his talents, most works havingnever previously been reproduced. Sorrell’sown titles included: British Castles, text andillustrations by Sorrell, Batsford Ltd, 1973,Medieval Britain drawings by Alan Sorrell &Richard Sorrell, Lutterworth Press, 1978, Re-constructing the Past, edited by Mark Sorrell,Batsford, 1981, and many more. Contributorsinclude Paul Liss, Richard Sorrell, PeytonSkipwith, Sacha Llewellyn, Brian Foss, AlanPowers, Sara Perry and Matthew Johnson.


How to Read CastlesAuthor: Malcolm HislopPublisher: Bloomsbury Press, LondonPub. Date: Nov. 2013ISBN: 978 1 4725 2161 3Size: 135 x 165 mm, pp. 256Prices: £9.99

How to Read Castles - A crash course in under-standing fortification - is a delightful, conciseand beautifully illustrated handbook. It formspart of the Bloomsbury series of handbooks thatinclude subjects such as bridges, churches, gar-dens, houses, and even graveyards. It is a pock-et-sized primer that takes a strictly visualapproach to castle architecture, helping visitorsto easily recognize and date the principal typesof castle buildings as they developed and torecognise the visual clues that the details of thevarious elements of the castle’s structures pres-ent. The two main sections are: ‘The Grammarof Castles’: Function, Fortress; Residence; De-sign & Build; Castle Types; Destruction andRevival, and ‘Feature by Feature’: The GreatTower; Enceinte; Towers & Turrets; WallheadDefence; The Gateway; Barbicans; Accommo-dation; The Chapel; Prisons; Doors & Porches;Windows & Loops, Water & Sanitation; Heat-ing; Staircases. Followed by a useful Glossary,Gazetteer and Index.

Throughout, the writer uses not photographs butprints, engravings and fine line drawings froma variety of reliable sources. These include Eu-gene Viollet-le-Duc, Turner & Parker, C HHartshorne, Sidney Toy (plans and sections)and others. These beautifully executed draw-ings remain unmatched and give clarity andprecision to the points being illustrated on eachpage, although very occasionally the silver-greyprints lose some sharpness (e.g. the J. P. Nealeview of Leeds Castle, p. 126, and the unusualview of Manorbier, p. 118). But the drawingshave been carefully chosen for their instructivequalities and are well-presented within theircontext. In the first ‘Grammar of Castles’ sec-tion, the choices and examples of castles usedare not limited to France and Britain, but ambi-tiously include castles from Italy, Spain, Ger-many, Russia, the Crusader kingdoms, andJapan, all included perhaps to extend the rangeof its possible readership appeal.

On the other hand, most of the ‘Feature byFeature’ details are drawn from castles withinthe UK and France. Within each feature, thesubject is further broken down: thus Accommo-dation is in three sections: Early Great Halls -(Oakham, Hedingham); Mid-medieval GreatHalls - (Stokesay, Acton Burnell); Late Medi-eval Great Halls - (Kenilworth, Yanworth, Rag-lan). Of necessity the writer has had to make arigorous selective process to identify key build-ings or features that are representative of differ-ent time periods, so only two or three suffice.

The longest section deals with the vital subjectof the keep or ‘Great Tower’ (pp. 94-117). Thisincludes 11 sub-sections broadly developed inchronological order: Shell keeps (Lincoln, Ber-keley, Launceston, Tamworth), Hall keeps(Colchester, Caste Rising), Tower keeps (Loch-es, Hedingham, Bellver, Château de Landskronin Alsace), Forebuildings (Arques-la-Bataille,Orford, Newcastle); Cylindrical keeps (Coucy,New Buckenham); Cylindrical keep variants(Conisbrough, Houdan); Quatrefoil keeps(Étampes); Polygonal Keeps (Provins); TowerHouse (Langley, Borthwick, Tukhlah [Syria];Solar Towers (Longthorpe, Stokesay, Mortham,Tattershall); Later Great Towers (Warkworth,

New Books/Journals - 2014-15 - Reviews - How to Read Castles


Pierrefonds). Malcolm is especially known forhis knowledge and expertise in the castles ofnorthern England and this becomes evidentthroughout the pages by the selection of many ofthe castle elements which are taken from C. H.Hartshorne’s Feudal and Military Antiquities ofNorthumberland (Alnwick, Warkworth, Raby,Prudhoe etc) and Turner & Parker’s Aydon Cas-tle amongst others. Viollet-le-Duc’s illustrations(Dictionnaire raisonné de l'architecturefrançaise du XIe au XVIe siècle) are normallyfrom Carcassonne, Coucy or Pierrefonds.

As one would expect, the writer’s commentaryand analysis reflects his up-to-the-minute aware-ness of current knowledge, trends and revisionistthinking within castle studies. Thus, when dis-cussing ‘Murder Holes’ (pp. 164-5) he carefullynotes that: ‘the so-called murder hole is a type ofmachicolation largely confined to gateways. Itconsists of an opening, often one of a group ofsimilar features in the vault or elevation of agate-passage that could be used by the occupantsof the floor above. In the past they have beenexplained as a means by which the defenders ofa castle could harry an enemy with missiles inthe event of them gaining unauthorised access tothe gate-passage, but alternative interpretations,including their use as a supply hatch, are equally,if not more valid’. Thus, some of the ‘murderholes’ in the gate-passage at Goodrich Castle,viewed recently by this reviewer, are now seennot as murder holes, but, as the EH display panelexplains, for the counterweights of the portcullismechanism when being raised and lowered.

Of the definition of ‘Tower House’ the authornotes that (p. 112): ‘Tower house is a namegiven to great towers that are self-containeddwellings. The name is usually applied to small-er towers built by the lesser nobility in unsettledregions in which the characteristic form of resi-dence was a tower. It is not generally applied tothe great towers that form part of the castle.However, some great towers were as self-con-tained as tower houses and some buildings thatare described as tower houses form elements ofwider complexes. The term is therefore used inan imprecise fashion, and there is no universallyaccepted definition’.

There are nearly 1000 illustrations in the bookand Malcolm is normally punctilious in speci-fying which castle the drawing or illustrationrefers to. However, there are a few that areuntitled, and it is a useful intellectual challengeto try to put a name to the castle. Examplesinclude: p. 94 (Gisors), 114 (Longthorpe Tow-er), 118 (Manorbier), 138 (Eagle Tower, Caer-narvon), 154 (Alnwick), 168 Villeneuve-sur-Yonne (one of the town gates) 169 (right -Caerphilly), 190 (Broughton Castle near Ban-bury), 202 (Wingfield Manor), 216 (Alnwick),233 (Wingfield Manor), 240 (Carcassonne),and a few more.

Any basis for producing accessible and readabletext and commentary is summed up by JohnRuskin: ‘It is far more difficult to be simple than itis to be complicated; far more difficult to sacrificeskill and easy execution in the proper place, thanto expand both indiscriminately’. Efforts requiredto simplify concentrates the mind, and the appar-ent succinct simplicity of Malcolm’s explanatorycomments belies much hard work in reducing acomplicated subject to its basics, yet doing so inan authoritative way that informs and educates.

Any cavils are minor and have more to do withthe reproduction of a few images rather thansupporting texts. The nature of the pocket-sizedpublication requires many of the full, and some-times long distance castle images to be thumb-nail size. This, coupled with the grey-scaletones sometimes produces an indistinct thumb-nail visual. That, together with the failing eye-sight of this ageing reviewer, and the small fontsize of the print demands quite close concentra-tion. But that does not detract from the pleasureof assimilating the wonderful architectural de-tail drawings that bring these buildings to lifeand illustrate complex concepts so clearly.

Malcolm has for many years been an activemember of the Castle Studies Group and overthe last few years has authored various excel-lent books and papers, including How to Builda Cathedral (2012) and John Lewyn of Dur-ham: A Medieval Mason in Practice (BARBritish Series, 2007).

Neil Guy

New Books/Journals - 2014-15 - Reviews - How to Read Castles


New Books/Journals - 2014-15 - Reviews - Clogh Oughter

Clogh Oughter Castle, Co. Cavan: Ar-chaeology, History and Architecture.

Author: Conleth ManningPublisher: Stationery Office, Dublin.Sponsor: Dept of the Arts, Heritage and theGaeltachtISBN : 978-1-4064-2777-6Publication Details: 2013Soft Cover: Price: €30.00A4 size., 232 pp. Full colour.

Clogh Oughter Castle, Co. Cavan: Archaeol-ogy, History and Architecture is No. 8 in thehighly respected Archaeological MonographSeries. The series began in 2003 with No. 1,edited by Conleth Manning, entitled: Excava-tions at Roscrea Castle. Others have followedin the same format, including two other castlemonographs: No. 6, Trim Castle, Co. Meath:Excavations 1995-8 (Alan R. Hayden), and No7: Parke’s Castle. Co Leitrim,: Archaeology,History and Architecture (Clare Foley andColm Donnelly). For the latter, see the CSGBibliography for 2013 (p. 12).

The production quality of these monographs isoutstanding and Clogh Oughter is no excep-tion. It is in the usual A4 format with full

colour throughout, printed on high qualitysilk-gloss finish paper. Layout, typesettingand presentation makes this handsome mono-graph a pleasure to browse and read. Thebook is packed with images and the stunning-ly sharp and often dramatic ground and aerialviews supplied by the Photographic Unit ofthe NMS add extra clarity and vibrancy to thetext (e.g. Pl. 3.1). Footnotes, mainly confinedto Chapter 2 (History), are kept to a minimum.

Conleth Manning needs no introduction toCSG members. He is a senior archaeologist inthe Department’s National Monuments Serv-ice, and the monograph illuminates the devel-opment of the castle using the results of surveyand archaeological excavations that were car-ried out at the site in 1987-8 to facilitate con-servation works on the castle. From these earlydays Manning oversaw the excavation. Thiswas followed by an underwater investigationof the castle in 2012 by Karl Brady. Manninghas now finally been able to bring this thor-ough, model report into print. The long gesta-tion period has allowed for rigorous researchand considered discussion. For example, animportant section of the discussion on C13round towers (Chapter 7) was dealt with inChâteau Gaillard 25 (Clogh Oughter Castle,Co Cavan, and Thirteenth Century CircularTowers in Ireland), pp. 223-231.

The chapters of the book consider (1) the set-ting of the castle, (2) its history, (3) detaileddescription, (4) the rationale for its conserva-tion and (5) excavation. The sixth chapter con-tains the specialist reports on various aspects ofthe archaeology, such as bone objects, militaryartefacts and textiles, while the final section (7)(discussion) is an informative and thought-pro-voking analysis on the results of the excavationand investigation and their significance in thelocal and national contexts. The archaeologicalexcavations and accompanying historical re-search associated with it have thrown muchlight on the architectural and building historyof the castle, particularly on its later use duringthe mid seventeenth century and on the finalsiege and subsequent partial destruction of thisgreat early thirteenth-century tower.


Clogh Oughter is tucked away in a remote cor-ner of Co. Cavan, on a tiny island in LoughOughter. In the ‘Discussion’ section Manningintroduces to the reader the concept and back-ground of the Irish crannog and suggests thatthe ‘Crannog of the O’Reillys’ - an island builtup of stones thrown down on a bedrock base ina shallow part of the lough, is probably the sameisland on which the Anglo-Norman de Lacysfounded the ‘castle’. Manning brings some clar-ity and rather more certainty to the history ofClogh Oughter and suggests that the round tow-er with its original stone enceinte was probablybuilt c. 1220-1224. It is possible that Walter deLacy commenced the first phase (Phase 1) in1220 and that Phase 2 was continued by Wil-liam Gorm de Lacy in 1222-4. It is argued thatPhase 1 consisted of just the two lower storeys(Pl. 7.1 - reconstruction drawing by PhelimManning), with a first floor entrance accessedvia a wooden stair. At this stage there was nointernal staircase either spiral or mural so thatthere must have been some arrangement ofwooden stairs or ladders to reach the parapetand the ground-floor basement.

Phase 2 (Pl. 7.2) may have been continued withonly a minimal break, though Phase 1 may havebeen roofed even if temporarily. Phase 2 ap-pears to have consisted of building the tower upto its present height (approx 18m), nearly dou-bling its original height. This phase probablyalso included the addition of an external rectan-gular stair turret giving access from the firstfloor to the parapet. Whilst the tower reached aheight which would normally indicate three ormore storeys, no additional floors were added atthis time, perhaps indicating a deeply counter-sunk roof, as there was found to be no evidenceof windows or any door openings in this height-ened space for that building period.

Under the section ‘Evidence for Former At-tached Walls’ (pp. 60-61) it is suggested thatthe Phase 2 attached rectangular external turret(now lost) was probably both a spiral stair turret(two worked newel stones for a spiral stair werefound on the island during excavation - Fig.6.21, p, 138) and a garderobe turret combined.Other remaining evidence include the remain-


ing bonding or toothing stones for such a turret.(Pl. 3.20). Only one other round tower has arectangular projection on the outside of the cyl-inder - Dolbadarn in North Wales. It was inter-esting to be reminded that William Gorm deLacy’s father-in-law was Llywelwyn ab Iorw-erth (the Great), who actually built Dolbadarn.Whilst there is no close dating evidence forDolbadarn (R. Avent, Cadw guidebook, Dol-wywddelan Castle, Dolbadarn Castle, 2004,12), a date in the 1230s has been suggested,although an earlier date is also possible. So theremay be a familial link stylistically with these twotowers. However, Dolbadarn’s turret is simply agarderobe tower and the spiral stair is built else-where within the thickness of the cylinder wall.In regard to Clogh Oughter tower’s near dou-bling of height by c. 1224, it is noted that ‘thebuilder of Phase 2 appears to have been moreinterested in the imposing appearance of thehigher tower than in providing further accom-modation’, (p. 197), and no additional floorswere added until the C17 (Phase 3,1610-20).

The discussion of stand-alone circular towersbuilt in the early 13th century (pp. 198-201) isa key section of the monograph in putting theround tower into local and Europe-wide con-text. This section should be read in conjunctionwith Château Gaillard 25, where Manning isable to give greater details of comparative tow-ers and elaborate his arguments with detailedplans (Table 1 is particularly useful, listing allIrish/Welsh/English round towers, with theirexternal/internal diameters and wall thickness-es). It is most likely that the Clogh Oughtertower was built either butting up against or adja-cent to the curtain wall (now missing), or at leasthaving access to the curtain wall perhaps via abridge from the 1st-floor level. There were threedoorways at 1st-floor level (Openings 4, 6 and8, Figs. 3.3 & 3.19). Opening 6 was there fromthe start, possibly in Phase 1, giving access tothe curtain wall and a garderobe attached insome way to it. In Phase 2 the stair turret wasadded and this same doorway was used foraccess. Opening 4 was the main entrance andopening 8 could also have given access to thecurtain wall (wall toothing underneath it).


There is a really interesting section on thevarious types of window openings and embra-sures being constructed in towers at this period,the options of segmental, round-headed orpointed arches and variations on the width andgeometry of the embrasures and loops. (p. 199).Some windows, of course [perhaps the majori-ty] have parallel-sided embrasures (Dundrum,Nenagh, Kilkenny, Dublin - Record Tower).Unusually, at Clogh Oughter the sides ‘initiallydiverge from the inner face as radii of the circle’(in other words, on plan, they look like a penta-gon in geometric form). Apparently this is onlyparalleled once in Ireland at Kiltinan as a stand-alone tower and in one mural tower on the wallsof Kilkenny. (It would be interesting if anyreaders can suggest any examples of this formfound in England and Wales). The fact thatClogh Oughter has a combination of segmental(ground floor) and pointed arched heads (firstfloor) to the door/window embrasures suggeststo the author that this would probably favour adate in the 1220s rather than any earlier date intowers of this type.

However there still remain a number of mys-teries. On the western side of the tower is alarge rectangular parallel-sided hole runningthrough the wall (Pls. 3.18 & 3.24). The hole isabout .75 m high and about .5 m wide. Its base


is roughly level with thehead of the third flooropening. There was a cor-responding opening inline with it in the easternwall. The author suggeststhat these holes held amassive beam of timberwhich must have been putin place when the wall ofthe tower reached thisheight. The function ofthis massive bean remainsunclear - but it may havein some way supportedthe Phase 2 roof structure.It seems certain that thiswas an original feature ofthe upper part of the tower

(pp. 57-58). (They are out of view in the imageabove left, which is a view from the south. Themissing section contained the original first floorentrance. ).

From the outset of the conservation project ithad been hoped that it would be possible formembers of the public to access the top of thetower so that the view could be enjoyed. Thedifficulties of achieving this objective on anisolated non-custodial building gradually be-came apparent. There is a system of woodenplatforms that have been permanently installed,but only with moveable ladders, thus allowingmaintenance and cleaning works (p. 71).

Clogh Oughter Castle is a magnificently con-served monument, located in the most beautifulof settings, and is emblematic of the high qualityof Ireland’s heritage resource. Conleth Manningand the staff of the National Monuments Serviceare to be congratulated on setting the higheststandards in unravelling and superbly illustrat-ing its history and project managing the physicalrescue and renewal of this dramatic, monumen-tal building. There is no doubt that this lucid andcultured monograph will be the standard refer-ence for Clogh Oughter Castle for many yearsto come. It can be purchased directly fromwww.wordwellbooks.com.

Neil Guy


Carmarthen Castle - The Archaeologyof Government

Author: Neil LudlowPublisher: University of Wales PressHardback: £34.99ISBN: 9781783160129Pages: 475, size: 189 x 246 mm; figs: 166.Black & white throughoutPublished: 15 June 2014

Carmarthen Castle was one of the largest castlesin medieval Wales. It was also one of the mostimportant, with its role as a centre of govern-ment and as the sole Crown possession in aregion dominated by Welsh-controlled landsand Marcher lordships. Largely demolishedduring the seventeenth century, it was subse-quently redeveloped, first as a prison and lateras the local authority headquarters. Yet the sur-viving remains, and their situation, are still im-pressive although until the mid-90s, due toencroachment and peripheral development thebest remaining features of Carmarthen Castlewere essentially hidden from view.

The situation changed with a major programmeof archaeological and research work from 1993to 2006, which is described in close detail in

Neil Ludlow’s book. The castle’s history, itsimpact on the region and on Wales as a wholeare also examined; the officials and other occu-pants of the castle are described, along with theiractivities and how they interacted with theirenvironment. Excavations at the castle, and theartefacts recovered, are described along with itsremaining archaeological potential.

The reader is first confronted with an illuminat-ing, eye-opening, detailed bird’s eye view of aconjectural reconstruction of Carmarthen Cas-tle viewed from the south-west, as it may haveappeared in c. 1500 (see cover). It is the essen-tial key that unlocks the castle. Much of thishas now gone, but the author follows a meticu-lous evidential process through survey, ar-chaeological excavation, documentary history,research, and topographical analysis, to estab-lish the accuracy and feasibility of the architec-tural detail presented. The full extent of thecastle’s two wards is calculated as 1.4 hectares(3.5 acres), which would make it one of thelargest castles in Wales after Caerphilly. Sadly,due to demolition and later layers of develop-ment (the county gaol and later county hall)much of this remains buried or masked. Butmuch does still remain above ground - theShell Keep, the west Great Gatehouse, the SWTower and the south Square Tower.

The 7 chapters are: 1:Introduction; 2: Carmarth-en Castle and its place in Medieval Wales; 3:The Physical Remains; 4: Reconstructing theCastle; 5: Division, Demolition and Develop-ment: The Post-Medieval Castle; 6: Pottery andOther Finds; 7: Epilogue: The Castle Rediscov-ered. Chapters are richly illustrated with meticu-lously drawn maps, plans, elevations andsections. The tonal and compositional qualitiesof the black and white photographs add andenhance detail to architectural features, whereascolour can often do the reverse. The archaeolog-ical /architectural plans and sections that accom-pany Chapter 3 can be singled out for theirinstructive clarity, generous helpful labellingand their innovative design and this is the chap-ter that drills down into the archaeological detailof the remains that have been surveyed or un-earthed since 1993, underpinning the narrative.

New Books/Journals - 2014-15 - Reviews - Carmarthen Castle


For this reviewer Chapter 4 is the most ambi-tious section wherein the author attempts toreconstruct the physical evolution of the castlefrom 1106 to 1550. Neil identifies or postulates7 phases: 1: The Timber Castle 1105-1180; 2:The Shell Keep, 1181-1222?; 3: The MasonryDefences 1223-1240; 4: Buildings for theKing, 1241-1278; 5: More Accommodation1279-1300; 6: Buildings for Government1301-1408; 7: Damage and Rebuilding, 1409 -c. 1550. The first 4 of these phases can bedirectly related to the important parts of thecastle that remain - the motte/shell keep, maingatehouse and the SW Tower, and much anal-ysis is given to analogues of castles that havecomparative dates or that have similar archi-tectural features both in Wales and elsewhere.

Whilst the lobed masonry ‘shell keep’ is tradi-tionally and conventionally dated to the 1220-30s (and Neil gives plenty of good reasons whythis may be so), he also offers a well-arguedalternative scenario, that the revetting of theexisting motte, the shell wall with its three (pos-sibly 4) unusual semi-round turrets was theproduct of a campaign in the 1180s when thecastle was in Crown control. A comparison ismade here with Berkeley Castle of a similar orearlier date with its three half-round ‘bastions’and includes other circumstantial evidence of alink between Berkeley and Carmarthen (pp.180-3). Excavation also found the footings of acentral circular structure within the shell keep -too small in diameter to be a ‘keep’ but it mayhave been a watch-tower, which might accountfor the reference to the shell keep described as‘four high towers with the watch-tower (garit)’of an account from 1321 (p. 181 & fig. 115).(Alternatively the 5 towers in total may refer tothe complete circuit of towers ringing the InnerWard, the shell keep complex included as one ofthe 5). This reviewer also notes from HKW (II)(p. 601) of repairs made in 1250-60 to the ‘roofof the keep’ (n.2), and wonders if the shell keep,in fact, may at one time, in its earliest stages,have had a composite roof similar in principle toClifford’s Tower, York. However, this may re-fer to the composite roof of all the structureswithin the inner perimeter of the shell.

In connection with Phase 3, (1223-1240),when the castle was under the control/ owner-ship of Hubert de Burgh / William Marshal theYounger, most of the Inner Ward Towers andgates were completed. The author notes that:‘Hubert de Burgh and the Marshal earls wereamong the leading innovators in castle designduring the early thirteenth century. The Mar-shals built extensively at Chepstow, Pem-broke, in Ireland and elsewhere. Hubert deBurgh - who, as acting regent during the mi-nority of Henry III, effectively was the Crown- also built on a considerable scale. The workat Carmarthen however, stands at an importantjuncture in British castle development. Hither-to, the great barons had been influential in thisdevelopment. From the mid-thirteenth centu-ry, however, they increasingly looked to thebuildings of the Crown - the ‘king’s works’ -for architectural trends and patterns of castledesign’.

This period (Phase 3) probably includes theconstruction of the SW Tower, a large spurreddrum tower with high spurs clasping the towerflanks, is of a type generally dateable to thelast three decades of the C13. The author ar-gues for the possibility of a much earlier con-struction date, partly relating to its closeaffinity to the very similar North Tower atCardigan Castle, reliably dated to the 1240-50speriod (pp. 184-6). Discussion follows on thegeneral development of spurred towers inC13/14 castles in Britain, highlighting the twomain variants - the pyramidal type, normallyonly seen in Wales and the broached squarebase to round tower type seen in England atDover and elsewhere. This is an informeddiscussion drawing on a wide range of exam-ples and builds on the valuable account ofspurred tower development by John Goodall(English Castles pp. 171-4, 206-9). The authornotes that (with one exception, St. Briavels),pyramidal spurred towers are all developed atbaronial castles, that Cardigan’s North Towerwas probably begun under baronial tenure, andposits that Carmarthen’s SW Tower may havebeen its model and precursor. In other wordsCarmarthen represents the first example of a



pyramidal spurred cylindrical tower built inBritain (c. 1230s), the concept of which waspossibly carried forward by the Clares to Ton-bridge in the 1250s, rather than anything devel-oped at the Tower of London. In all thiscomparative analysis, the author brings to beara wide range of contemporary sources demon-strating a comprehensive understanding of thecurrent level of knowledge, trends and thinkingin the developmental architectural aspects ofcastle studies, adding weight to this work.

Each sequential construction phase is accompa-nied by a clear progressive sketch showing asuggested development of the layout of build-ings within the Wards. Thus, Phase 4, fig. 119,highlights the work of Henry III during theperiod 1241-78. This work included the King’sHall, Chamber and Tower, all conjoined, in theSE quadrant of the Inner Ward. These are clear-ly illustrated on the bird’s eye reconstruction.The Inner Ward was later dissected by an E-Wcross-wall creating a more private inner sanctumto the south - in effect a zoned-off third ward,with all or of most the administrative buildings


to the north of this cross-wall. (But oddly, theMiddle Gate seems to connect directly into thewalled off ‘King’s space’ - see also the Speedmap, fig. 112). (The use of private space is dealtwith more fully under the section ‘Social Organ-isation: the Castle as Residence pp. 205-211).The author’s creative ideas for the scholarlyreconstructions of many of these lost buildingsappear to be drawn from the mid-C13 Henry IIItowers at the Tower of London with their singleor twinned ‘ears’, Goodrich, Helmsley, Pem-broke, Montgomery, and with, perhaps, a fewpersonal ‘flights of fancy’ e.g. the long pentiseon the inside face of the north wall. It all servesto highlight what high quality buildings are lost.

Chronologically arranged topographical viewsof Carmarthen have to wait until Chapter 5.John Speed’s view is illustrated in Chapter 4(fig. 112, p. 176), but Speed can often illustratebuildings in a representational way and is po-tentially (but not always) unreliable. ‘Speed’splan is not always easy to interpret and must beused with caution. For example, the cross ditchis not shown..’ (p. 176). And ‘Speed’s drawing

Buck’s view of Carmarthen Castle (1740). From the south-west, across the Tywi river. Suggestedkey:(Neil Ludlow). From L-R: 1. SW Tower. 2. Great Gatehouse. 3. Rear section of Gatehouse. 4.Shell Keep & Forebuilding 5. Part of the north curtain of the Inner Ward. 6. Southern opening of theN-S cross-ditch separating the Inner and Outer Ward, possibly including remains of postern gate.

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of 1610 may be misleading’.. notes the author(p. 229). The earliest extant views seem to bethose by the Buck brothers and Neil makesgood use of them, referring to them frequently.There are two, both taken from the south. Thefirst (1740) is from the SW with the riverbridge on the right, and the second (1748) fromthe SE with the bridge on the left. Both havetheir virtues and vices, and both are illustrated(figs. 126, 127, pp. 230, 235). However, bothare fairly small reproductions. It may havebeen a little more helpful to have had each ofthe Buck prints cropped, enlarged and labelledto show more individual detail, and to haveincluded them in Chapter 4 placed against thevarious architectural features as they are dis-cussed point by point. It is true that the twoBuck views sometimes show dissimilar fea-tures - they are not obviously consistent witheach other - but Buck did deliberately bendperspective to allow more sides of a buildingto seen than is possible with the naked eye, sooften these discrepancies can be resolved. It isalso possible that some towers had fallen or

had been demolished between 1740 and 1748.For some reason the C15 Square Tower alongthe south perimeter, which should be near theSW Tower is not shown, and the southern endof the N-S cross-ditch, which Neil illustratesbridged by a square postern tower seems diffi-cult to locate. (It looks like a fissure in the rockface). The shell-keep is also difficult to recon-cile between the 1740 and 1748 views and thebuilding with the large gable behind and extend-ing from the Great Gatehouse is shown on aparallel axis with the entrance in the 1748 view,but on a cross-axis with the entrance on the 1740view. As the Bucks and most later views are allfrom the south from across the Tywi river topo-graphical analysis from the C18 is necessarilylimited and difficult. However, there are anumber of important elements to the castle’sdevelopment that are now firmly established bythe author, often for the first time, proven eitherthrough archaeological excavation, topographi-cal analysis or through the available historicaldocumentation (well detailed in the Appendix).Many of these features are no longer readily


Buck’s view of Carmarthen (1748). From the South-east. View from across the Tywi river.Suggested key (Neil Ludlow): Clockwise from L-R: 1. SW Tower. 2. Great Gatehouse. 3. ShellKeep. 4. Outer Ward East curtain (fragment). 5. Southern opening of the N-S cross ditch separat-ing the Inner and Outer Ward.

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evident due to later development, and it is worthlisting the points to remind ourselves of the scopeof this work. To recap a few of these main points:1. Its early form: two distinct wards or baileyscut by a deep N-S dry cross-ditch. The OuterBailey (or suggested hornwork) to the east maywell have been the initial primary entry route,entering via a gate near Spilman St, and then viaa timber bridge over the N-S ditch into the InnerWard through the Middle Gate (shown onSpeed’s map). It may have been William Mar-shal II (or earlier) who ‘turned around’ the castleto face west - to the town - at some point after thetown had been fully established (p. 179).2. The motte may have developed into a ma-sonry shell keep by the 1180s; it was at leasttri-lobed in form, and had a small circulartower at its centre, discussed above. Analogiesfor the shell and lobes are made with Berke-ley. The circular tower with stone footingshave may been half-timbered, and may pre-date the shell keep construction (pp. 180-4).3. The SW spurred drum tower may be theproduct of a 1230s building campaign by theMarshals, (or H. de Burgh) and the North Towerat Cardigan (1240s-60s) may be a direct copyfrom it. It may have influenced the spurred gate-house towers at Tonbridge (pp. 184-8).4. The south-east part of the Inner Ward be-came zoned off as the King’s private spacefollowing the work of Henry III in the mid-12thcentury. The King’s Tower (D-shaped, basedon Helmsley in the reconstruction, now lost),was conjoined with the ground-floor Great Halland King’s Chamber and may have been themost significant tower in the castle.5. The Outer Ward was probably walled in stonein the 1280-90s. Two significant corner towersare (NE & SW) shown by Speed (althoughSpeed does not show the N-S cross-ditch). Itmay also have housed the great stable block. Itsnorth gate may have later included a barbican.6. The west Great Gatehouse is a rebuildc. 1409 over a C13 twin-towered gatehouse.The mason who was in charge of building theKidwelly gatehouse may have been the same.Excavation revealed the two stone piers for a

bridge and drawbridge, leading to a significantbarbican (also shown by Speed). The gate-house had previously been extended to the rearin Phase 5, 1279-1300, (fig. 120), possiblylosing a spiral stair turret in Phase 7 (fig. 124).7. The remodelling of the motte, hitherto unre-marked in any published studies is seen as amassive civil engineering project. It appears tohave accompanied the building of the adjacentJusticiar’s Mansion, c. 1310-20 which overliesthe motte ditch and encroached upon the southpart of the motte. It may have been at this timethat the shell keep forebuilding was (re)built.8. The intermediate south Square Tower (ex-tant, but not shown by Speed or Buck) is prob-ably late 14th or early 15th century, withcontemporary comparisons to the changingpreferences for square towers, cf. Pickering.It should be mentioned that in addition to ad-dressing the physical remains and the conjecturaldevelopment of the castle, much is also writtenabout the landscape setting, the castle’s role inpolitics and war, as a centre of government, so-cial organisation, decline and re-use; and devel-opment as prison and seat of the county council -matters not discussed in this review.Carmarthen Castle is a pleasure to read. The textis erudite, argument is strong yet undogmatic,and the figures - illustrations, plans, sections etc -are outstanding in their clarity and precision. Thefootnotes, placed at the end of each chapter are inan unusually good-sized font and very easy toread. The author writes with authority. This isborne out of the author’s meticulous research, anintimate knowledge of the whole structure afterliving with it for nearly 20 years, and a wide-ranging awareness of the current state of knowl-edge and of all the various strands of thinkingwithin castle studies. The book puts CarmarthenCastle, (somewhat still unloved it must be said),at the heart of the history of medieval Wales, thewhole study combining to restore the castle’spre-eminence and make a major contribution tothe history of one of Wales’s great towns. Car-marthen Castle may well be the castle ‘Book ofthe Year’ for 2014, both in Welsh and English.

Neil Guy



Goodrich Castle: Its History and BuildingsAuthor: Ron ShoesmithPublisher: Logaston PressPaperback: 240 pagesPublished: Soft Cover edition: April 2014ISBN-10:1906663831 ISBN-13: 978-906663834Price: £12.95

This publication has its origins as far back as1989, when a ‘feasibility study’ for a book, ormonograph, was prepared for English Herit-age. The main part of the project took placebetween 1999 and 2002, and at the time it wasintended that this should be an academic publi-cation; almost 180,000 words were writtenwith exhaustive details about every feature.Unfortunately the programme was put on holdand went into abeyance in 2002. It was rescuedin 2012 with much help from Dr. Nigel Bakerof Herefordshire Archaeology and funding re-stored; (Baker, N, ‘A Revised Project Design...The Completion, Editing and Publication ofGoodrich Castle, Herefordshire’, February2012). The revised project was to be a book ofmore popular interest. Ron Shoesmith’s Intro-

duction notes that: ‘all those long descriptionsof mouldings, door fastenings, etc had to go,the text had to be reduced by half and many sitedrawings were replaced with photographs.With much effort and with many groans fromthe various contributors, this has been done’.

Contributors to various chapters include BruceCoplestone-Crow, Pat Hughes, Loretta Nikolič,P J Pikes and Thomas Richards. The book isnow in four distinct parts: The Goodrich Area;The Historical Background; The Buildings;and The Finds & Life at the Castle. The firstpart sets the scene and covers the backgroundhistory. The historical background deals withthe people who built and lived in the castle, thedestruction caused by the Civil War and thegradual emergence of the building, first as aromantic ruin and then as an ancient monu-ment. Chapters 11-18 deal with the buildingand its description is led by its various con-structional periods rather than by individualbuildings. The sections within this deal broadlywith the following: possible earthworks andthe first stone castle; the grand 13th centuryEdwardian castle which included the additionof curtain walls, corner towers and some inter-nal buildings; 14th century additions and alter-ations; the barbican; the gradual conversion tohouses from the 15th to the 18th century.

CSG members and visitors to Goodrich Castle- one of the finest castles in England - will befamiliar with the series of English Heritageguidebooks; the old DoE handbook by C. A.Ralegh Radford, first published in 1958, DerekRenn’s EH Goodrich Castle guidebook of1993, and the new, current EH guidebook byJeremy Ashbee, first published in 2005. Manyothers have made valuable contributionsthroughout this period. P. A. Faulkner, 1963,‘Castle Planning in the 14th Century’ in theArchaeological Journal Vol. 120, pp. 215-35(on the integrated domestic accommodationarrangements) Anthony Emery, 2000, GreaterMedieval Houses of England and Wales Vol.II, who expands on Faulkner’s ideas and sug-gests an early 14th century for most of theValence work. So, in regard to the castle'sarchitectural history the buildings of Goodrich

New Books/Journals - 2014-15 - Reviews - Goodrich Castle - Its History & Buildings


have been variously dated: we have the presentEH guidebook suggesting most ‘Edwardian’work was done by 1296, Anthony Emery’s Vol.II entry suggesting most was done by Aymer,1307-24 (d. 1324). Ron Shoesmith’s revisionistmonograph moves away quite a lot from thecurrent guidebook and it is worth listing themajor areas where views radically diverge:

The Norman Keep (pp. 108-116)This is seen as a ‘solar keep’, built by Baderonof Monmouth (p. 26). ‘Thurlby gives reasonsfor supposing that the carved decoration of thekeep is allied to the work of the HerefordshireSchool of Romanesque Sculpture’, active inHerefordshire and neighbouring counties andsuggests that the keep should be dated c. 1120-40..’ (Pl. 13, p. 64).

The Edwardian Castle (William, & AymerValence), (1250-1327)Rock-cut ditches on the East and South;New curtain walls and corner towers (SE, NW,SW (the SW tower later rebuilt by the Talbots)North range (solar/hall) and vestibuleGatehouse and Chapel Towers Low status eastbuilding. 1st Barbican

The Talbot Work: (1327-1421)New west curtain including the Great Hall andlobbyAlterations to chapel - balcony/wall steps/upperroom inside gatehouse for canons.Replacement of SW Tower with the ‘Great Tow-er’ (p. 130, fig. 12.13).New beaked south curtain wall linking the SE& SW tower with rooms around the Normankeep including the dungeon (jail) and kitchen.New east hall.Alterations to barbican and improvements tothe gatehouse.

The Shrewsburys: (1442-1590)

Addition of 1st floor to N. Range with galleries3-storey timber E range with galleriesGrand staircase hall in lobby.Insertion of garderobe tower on E. Wall.Further extension eastwards of gatehouseNew windows in chapel

New Books/Journals - 2014-15 - Reviews - Goodrich Castle - Its History & Buildings

Formation of N & W (outer) wards with en-closing walls and towersStables in west ward and associated works.Piped water supply and alterations to kitchen.

See the ‘Chronological Table’ pp. 22-23 for aquick guide to these suggested changes. Clear-ly there is a lot to consider, and the CSG willbe able to look carefully at the castle in 2016as part of their April Conference itinerarybased in Hereford. Perhaps, in all of this, themost radical view is the suggestion that thewest range, including the great hall, lobby andthe SW tower was built/ rebuilt c. 1330-40s -such a short time after their completion by theValences in, say, the 1290s.The book is generously supplied with plans,images, survey drawings, and antiquarian viewswith some excellent full-page close-up photo-graphs of the castle’s interiors (by the late JohnStevenson). The EH ground plan has been col-our modified to highlight the suggested datingsequence changes and there are a number ofvery fine reconstruction drawings around theinterior courtyards (figs. 7.3, 11.8, 12.5, 12.9etc). Floor plans of each spurred corner towerare usefully shown at all levels, including thefloor-joist patterns. A few of the rarely seenviews by topographical draughtsman and en-graver Thomas Bonnor (c. 1798) are also in-cluded (fig. 6.1, 8.5, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5). (FromBonnor's Copper-plate perspective itinerary,or, Pocket Portfolio: Ten perspective views, thebeauties of Gloucester Cathedral. Ten views ofGoodrich Castle). Bonnor was one of the ablesttopographical artists of his time. Shoesmith alsorightly refers to Edward King’s (1735-1807)1804 Munimenta Antiqua or Observations onAncient Castles, which contains a remarkablywell-illustrated section on Goodrich with de-tailed plans and line drawings. However, muchof King’s rather faulty text is repeated in Bray-ley & Britton’s Description of the County ofHereford (1805) which adds little more thanKing. All, including Goodrich Castle, Its Histo-ry and Buildings are essential reading to beginto understand one of the finest and most signif-icant castles of the 13th and 14th century.

Neil Guy


The Jacobean plantations in seven-teenth-century Offaly: an archaeology of

a changing worldAuthor: James LyttletonPublisher: Four Courts Press, Dublin,Publication Date: October 2013Size: 352 pp; large format, full-colour ills.ISBN: 978-1-84682-383-0 (hb; Euro 49.50)ISBN: 978-1-84682-492-0 (pb; Euro 26.95)

This is so much more than a book about earlymodern Ireland’s fortifications or strong houses,for it looks at the plantation in its widest sense,albeit in one county. However, it must have aplace in the reviews section in the CSG’s jour-nal, because of, in particular, the fifth and sixthchapters, which examine the tower and fortifiedhouses in Jacobean Offaly.

The author states in the preface that by ‘re-ap-praising the various categories of secular andnon-secular buildings such as tower houses,fortified houses, farmhouses and churches, onecan go beyond morphological concerns and ex-plore the extent to which individuals influencedtheir own social, economic and cultural posi-tions in society ...’. Nevertheless, it is the archi-

tecture which will interest most CSG members,and it is on that I will concentrate, but emphasis-ing that this book is a major contribution toBritish and European early seventeenth-centuryhistory.

The introductory chapters help to set the scene,particularly invaluable for non-Irish readers, ex-amining the impact of the arrival in the 1540s ofthe first English in the area since the thirteenthcentury. We find Englishmen leasing propertyfrom the Crown, such as former monastic lands,and at the former priory church at Seir Kieranthere still stands a small gun tower of the 1550sor ‘60s with small loops for muskets.

Settlers arriving in 1619-20 would have foundtower houses as the dominant architecture,with considerably more standing then com-pared to the number visible today. In south andwest Offaly the design generally follows thepattern in west Ireland and to the south, withrectangular towers three to five storeys high,ground-floor entrances with yetts, a main room(or two) to each floor, sometimes supplement-ed by mural chambers. As one would expect,the higher one went up a tower, the more ornateand comfortable the accommodation. A Scots-man or an Englishman from the north wouldnot find the architecture in Offaly and else-where too dissimilar from back home. LukeGernon’s well-known description in 1620 of aLimerick tower house in his ‘Discourse ofIreland’ (British Library, Stowe manuscripts)gives a flavour of these towers, and particularlyhow visitors were welcomed, useful in thatdocumentation is sparse regarding householdinventories and accounts.

The tower house chapter also examines thebuildings associated with them, both througharchaeology and documentary evidence, andthe social arrangement and function of areasof the towers based on gender.

With a growing amateur interest in late Eliza-bethan and Jacobean architecture in Englandand Wales, it was the sixth chapter, on thefortified house, that the reviewer found of greatinterest. Like the towers, they could be associat-

New Books - 2014-15 - Reviews - The Jacobean Plantations in Seventeenth-Century Offaly


The Knight Who SavedEngland: William Mar-shal and the French In-vasion, 1217Author: Richard BrooksPublisher: OspreyPb; April 2014; 344 ppISBN: 9781849085502

The author traces the rise of Marshal frompenniless younger son to renowned knight,national hero and defender of the Magna Car-ta. A fascinating story of a man negotiating thebrutal realities of medieval warfare and theconflicting demands of chivalric ideals, andwho against the odds defeated the joint Frenchand rebel forces in arguably the most impor-tant battle in medieval English history – over-shadowing, arguably, even Agincourt.

ed with defensive bawns, with the houses them-selves have small gunloops and alsomachicolations. But otherwise, by standards inEngland, they were minor gentry houses. Bally-mooney, built about 1622, is a good example,even if the house and bawn are very ruined.These houses had their great chambers, but theyalso contained more private withdrawing roomsand parlours where the immediate family mightdine. Documentary and other sources providean image of well furnished whitewashed rooms,often furnished with paintings and tapestries.As one of Lyttleton’s section headings implies,we have in the fortified house the late medievalmeeting the Renaissance in Ireland.

The book is in the excellent format that we havecome to expect from Four Courts Press, and isvery well illustrated and foot-noted. Far be itfrom the reviewer to be pedantic (!), but threedifferent spellings of ‘crenellation/ed’ in one par-agraph did have me reaching for my pen. Thataside, anyone with an interest in Irish architec-ture should acquire this book, and certainly itshould be on the shelves of those CSG membersin Britain who frequently attend the annual con-ferences whenever they are held in Ireland.

John R. Kenyon

New Books - 2014-15 - Reviews - The Jacobean Plantations in Seventeenth-Century Offaly

The Lordship of the IslesRichard Oram (ed.)Publication Date: August 2014Hardback, 348 pp.Publisher: BrillISBN13: 9789004279469Price: €126,00

In The Lordship of the Isles, twelve specialistsoffer new insights on the rise and fall of theMacDonalds of Islay and the greatest Gaeliclordship of later medieval Scotland. Portrayedmost often as either the independently-mindedlast great patrons of Scottish Gaelic culture oras dangerous rivals to the Stewart kings formastery of Scotland, this collection navigatesthrough such opposed perspectives to re-exam-ine the politics, culture, society and connec-tions of Highland and Hebridean Scotlandfrom the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries. Itdelivers a compelling account of a land andpeople caught literally and figuratively be-tween two worlds, those of the Atlantic andmainland Scotland, and of Gaelic and Anglo-phone culture.

Contributors are David Caldwell, Sonja Cam-eron, Alastair Campbell, Alison Cathcart, Col-in Martin, Tom McNeill, Lachlan Nicholson,Richard Oram, Michael Penman, AlasdairRoss, Geoffrey Stell and Sarah Thomas.


New Books - 2014-15 - Reviews - The Scottish Castle Restoration Debate

The Scottish Castle Restoration Debate 1990-2012 Paperback – 1 Jan 2013

Author: Michael C. DavisPublisher: Spindrift PublishingPublication Date: 2013Size: 29.7 x 21 x 0.6 cmPrice: £12.99

Available from Amazon or direct from MichaelDavis. [email protected] (p&p free).

Michael Davis’s discussion paper, The ScottishCastle Restoration Debate 1990-2012, is pub-lished as a slim book, elegantly written andattractively illustrated with photographs of theinteriors and exteriors of many of Scotland’ssmall domestic castles and tower houses. It is apolemic as well as a discussion paper; Davishas trenchant views on the restoration debatewhich he puts forward in a carefully arguedtext, backed up by several case studies. Thecore of his argument – if I can summarise acomplex and nuanced essay in a few words – isthat responses to the castle restoration debateshould not be informed solely by limiting ide-

ology, particularly that of the non-interven-tionist SPAB supporters, but should instead beflexible, intelligent and diverse if we are tosave those ruined Scottish castles that are stillat risk of further deterioration. “Such work aswe do should not simply aim to culturally rollover and play dead in all cases, hoping to avoiddetection as if our whole intervention had nothappened…We should not be ashamed or fearthat grandchildren may honour or admire ourwork as being of our age. We should insteadfear most that they condemn it on grounds of itlack of quality or lack of interest.”

Davis argues for a moving on from the Victo-rian attitudes to restoration, based on theviews of Ruskin and Morris, who arguedpassionately against the practice of imposingcontemporary aesthetic standards upon latemediaeval buildings. Of course, there are nowfar fewer Scottish castles left to be passionateabout, and many of the ruins that remain areat serious risk of collapse. If we pander to theentrenched attitudes of those in power whowould rather see a building crumble thanrestore it for modern usage, then we will beleft with rickles o’ stanes* throughout Scot-land where once we had built heritage to beproud of. Davis uses the example of the fiascoof Castle Tioram (“in danger of being saved”)throughout his essay to illustrate what can gowrong when those in power – i.e. HistoricScotland in this instance – are driven by dog-ma and simply will not listen to the voices ofthose who care about saving much lovedcastles. Across the political spectrum, cam-paigners in favour of restoring Castle Tioramunited against HS’s view, but the organisa-tion’s intransigence led to a public enquiry in2002 which rejected restoration plans. AsDavis pointed out: “Historic Scotland mayhave won the battle over Tioram, but in follow-ing its line over Tioram, it was therefore storingup problems for itself and for the future man-agement of Scotland’s architectural heritage. Afew years later, in 2011, Historic Scotland dra-matically changed tack and signalled that theywould permit restoration of Castle Tioram.Tioram, however, remains a ruin.”

THE SCOTTISH CASTLE RESTORATION DEBATE 1990-2012A paper to stimulate discussion and understandingMichael C. Davis


Davis’s exasperation at an apparent inabilityto get things right and to fly in the face ofoverwhelming advice about the sensible way toapproach a building from local people, archi-tects, historians, politicians and heritage cam-paigners is palpable. However, he is careful togive credit where it is due: “As far as castlerestoration is concerned, over the last 50 yearsHistoric Scotland has made a majorcontribution…The string of castle restorationsof the last half century – funded and non-fund-ed – has often provided startlingly new andoften creative input which has run counter tothe main architectural trends and preoccupa-tions of this period, and Historic Scotland hashelped to mould this phenomenon.”

Paradoxically, the second case study whichDavis uses to illustrate his points is that ofCaldwell Tower, the botched restoration ofwhich featured on an episode of Channel 4’sThe Restoration Man. The presenter, GeorgeClarke, himself an architect, was visiblyshocked by the inconsistent behaviour of HSand local planners in finally allowing an inap-propriate restoration, having earlier turneddown several much more sympathetic plans.Inconsistency in approving or blocking resto-ration and conservation plans is somethingthat Davis highlights and it is to be hoped thatthe future Historic Environment Scotlandbody will be able to iron out such anomaliesand take a measured, flexible approach toapplications.

We all await with interest what will come outof the merger between Historic Scotland (HS)and the Royal Commission on the Ancientand Historical Monuments of Scotland (RC-AHMS) and how the castles of Scotland willbe affected. Davis forecast that the two agen-cies would already have merged by the timehis book was published. Not so. Unlike thepublication of the HS booklet on castle andtower house restoration, which was put out totender in May 2009 for publication in Novem-ber 2009 and which, incredibly, is still out forconsultation and not yet published, Davis’sbook was published in a timely fashion in

2013. The merger of HS and RCHAMS is nottime-tabled to take place until October 2015,although trustees of the new Board are ex-pected to be appointed by January 2015 andtake up their posts by April 2015. GeraldWarner said in his review of Davis’s paper inThe Scotsman, “Whether this dysfunctionalagency is abolished or radically reformedbeyond recognition may be academic; but toreinvent it as a charity, as the Scottish Gov-ernment reportedly intends, is hardly appro-priate.” I agree that HS has becomedysfunctional in recent years, as does Davisby implication in his essay, but the prospectof the newly formed Historic EnvironmentScotland body, or Non-Departmental PublicBody (NDPB), being overseen by the Officeof the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) isnot so very terrible. What is important is thatin its new guise, as Davis says, “HistoricScotland personnel should operate within aculture which excludes narrow and exclusiveconservation viewpoints (such as that ofSPAB)…. At the highest levels, leadershipwhich is charismatic and passionate about ourarchitectural heritage and inspires other staffmembers is essential.” It is to be hoped that hisvision for the future will come to fruition – interms of securing the future for Scotland’smany ruined and crumbling castles, a greatdeal depends upon it. Davis has carried off atour de force by writing a paper that is at oncescholarly and accessible, passionate and meas-ured, and conceptually sophisticated yet practi-cal and down to earth in terms of its advice.

* a small pile of stones – see, for example S.R. Crockett’s Lochinvar (1897): “An aulddisjaskit rickle o’ stanes like the Hoose o’Grenoch”.

Janet Brennan-InglisJanet is currently Chairwoman of the ScottishCastles Association, and recently publishedScotland's Castles - Rescued, Rebuilt and Re-occupied, which we hope to review next year.

The cover image of Ballone Castle, Portmaho-mack, is reproduced by kind permission ofAndreas von Einsiedel.

New Books - 2014-15 - Reviews - The Scottish Castle Restoration Debate


New Books/Journals - 2014-15 - Reviews - Scotland’s Castles

Scotland’s Castles: Rescued, Rebuilt andRe-occupied

Author: Janet Brennan-InglisPublication Date: 7 July 2014Paperback: 192 pagesPublisher: The History PressISBN-10: 0750954450 ISBN-13: 978-0750954457Price: £10.49

Scotland’s Castles is a beautifully illustratedcelebration and account of the renaissance ofScottish castles that has taken place since1950. Over 100 ruined and derelict buildings– from tiny towers to rambling baronial man-sions – have been restored as homes, hotelsand holiday lets. These restorations havemainly been carried out by new owners with-out any connections to the land or the familyhistory of the buildings, which they bought asruins. Their struggles and triumphs, includinginterviews and first-person accounts, form thecore of the book, set in the context of theenormous social, political and economicchanges of the late twentieth century. GillianEadie will review this for CSG Journal 29.

A Short History of the Normans

Author: Leonie V HicksPublication Date: Sept 30th 2014Paperback: 272 pagesPublisher: I B TaurusISBN-10:1780762119 ISBN-13: 978-1780762111Price: £55.55 hb, £12.21 pb.

The Battle of Hastings in 1066 is the one dateforever seared on the British national psyche. Itenabled the Norman Conquest that marked theend of Anglo-Saxon England. But there wasmuch more to the Normans than the invadingarmy Duke William shipped over from Norman-dy to the shores of Sussex. How a band of ma-rauding warriors established some of the mostpowerful kingdoms in Europe - in Sicily andFrance, as well as England - is an improbablyromantic idea. In exploring Norman culture in allits regions, Leonie Hicks places the Normans inthe context of early medieval society. Her com-parative perspective enables the Norman story tobe told in full. From Hastings to the martialexploits of Bohemond and Tancred on the FirstCrusade this is a fresh and lively survey of oneof the most popular topics in European history.

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