Page 21 - O Mahony Journal 2025

The promontory is for the most part gentle in relief, being covered by
grass-grown ‘drift’ deposits.”

“The western part of the Iveragh peninsula, the territory of O’Mahony
Fionn, is now sparsely populated. Away from the formidable Mizen
Head, the ice-sculpted land meets the sea with low, rocky cliffs. In
this part of the Survey region, the strike of the rock is almost south-
west/northeast, the layers being tipped close to the vertical, the shore
tends to be sculpted into long peninsulas and islands running along
the strike. Exposed to the Atlantic, it is a wild treeless shore.”
“The castle was built to align with the strike of the rock, a feature of
most of the Ivagha tower houses. The strike is the compass direction
in which the rock bed is running and for West Cork that is mainly in a
northeast to southwest direction. The builders chose a prominent and
solid rocky platform, still easily discernible, and probably prepared it
by digging away any soil and loose rock and may have laid down a
layer of mortar to help bind the lowest slabs to the rock surface.“

Additionally:
“At Black Castle, the quality of the masonry varies, leading me to
think that not all stone masons were as skilled, or perhaps as careful,
as others… the quoins (corner stones) were made of fine-grained
sandstone that can be freely dressed in any direction (called Freestone),
while the stones used to dress the outer layer were carefully chosen
(or deliberately shaped) to be smooth and even, lending a pleasingly
sheer surface to the castle exterior, sometimes called an ‘ashlar finish.’

The raised entry, in the case of Black Castle, is directly above the
ground-level entry, similar to Ardintenant, but unlike Dunmanus where
the entries are staggered. The entrance to the upper door would have
been by means of a wooden staircase, possibly from the small rocky
knoll across from the entrance.
In his conversion of the castle to provide habitable space, Niall
concentrated on the upper floors. There is a living room, kitchen
dining area and bedrooms, along with a toilet and shower which are
situated in the original garderobe space.

By roofing and waterproofing the building, Niall has kept further
deterioration at bay. It is a joyous thing to sit and look over the
countryside with a cup of tea at hand, or to climb up to the wall, walk
and gaze over the wild and rugged peninsula, imagining Carew’s forces
advancing across the sea.

Niall Hyde has managed, on a limited budget, to salvage Black Castle
and indeed turn it into a space that his family enjoyed. We should all
be grateful to him, and to others who have taken on such tasks with
vision and courage. Without the Niall Hydes of this world, we would
all be the poorer.”
“Black Castle has been superbly stabilised and saved for future
generations by its owner, Niall Hyde. Niall, by the way, thinks the term
Black Castle is more historically accurate. He points out that there is,
in fact, in the townland of Leamcon, about 2 km to the northeast,
another ‘turret’ marked on the old OS maps, which is the remains of a

21