Carrigadrohid Castle. |
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Carrigadrohid Castle is situated on a rock outcrop in the River Lee, approximately five miles east of the town of Macroom in Co. Cork. The name Carrigadrohid translates as the rock of the bridge and occurs as early as 1573, indicating that a bridge stood here at that time, of unknown construction. Carrigadrohid Castle is a tower house, a type of castle built extensively throughout Ireland in the Middle Ages, from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century. These tower houses were the fortified residences of local lords and chieftains, both of the native Irish families and the descendants of the Anglo-Norman settlers. They were frequently built close to river crossings in order to control movement along and across river valleys, but this particular example at Carrigadrohid is rare in actually being built in the river, on a rocky island. The presence of a rock outcrop in the river made this a natural bridging point with relatively simple wooden structures sufficient to span the two channels formed by the rock outcrop. |
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Given the disturbed political and social conditions of late medieval Ireland, a castle would have been essential to protect the passage of people and goods over the bridge. |
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