How would you like a castle in your front yard? Well in Ireland you can have one. They say a man’s home is his castle. Or should that be a man’s castle is in his home.
Just imagine the things you could do with your very own castle. Like, use it to store your ride-on mower or maybe as a cubby-house for the kids.
A home for the ride-on
I came across this one recently. It is just on the outskirts of Liscarroll in Co Cork, which of course has its own Castle that dominates the village. I could not find a name for this one though, so hence I have christened it Castle Gan Ainm, but it is just like the many hundreds of Tower Houses you find all over Ireland.
This one though is literally in the front yard of a farmer’s house.
It is in surprisingly good condition really and many of the features of such houses are preserved. For example there is a chute from what would have been the garderobe (fancy name for medieval toilet – comes from the cry ‘garde robe’ made as a warning to those below, before effluent was unceremoniously tipped onto the street). There are also a few modern additions such as the ‘rooftop garden’ comprising, at this time of the year, gorse in full bloom.
Chute for waste products from the ‘gardebrobe’
A rooftop garden
And of course the resident border collie. The Keeper of the Keep?
The Keeper of the Keep
Singersong Blog 