Macollop Castle

From the Illustrated Dublin Journal, Volume 1, Number 36, May 10, 1862

SITUATED on the banks of the Blackwater river, on the boundary of the county of Waterford, and midway between the towns of Fermoy and Lismore, a distance of about ten miles, stands the ancient ruin of Macollop Castle, consisting of a large round tower, with several smaller square ones flanking its intermediate base; it has a very picturesque appearance when viewed in almost any direction, but particularly across the river, from the spot where it is said Cromwell, in the year 1640, with an ill directed cannon shot, reduced it to its present dilapidated state. The situation of the modern house, which is plain and rather low, seems as if designed to give the castle the most advantageous appearance, while the church, which fills up the chasm in the centre, with a well planted hill screening the more distant mountains of Clogheen and Ariglin, completes one of the prettiest landscapes which imagination can convey to the mind. The lawn and adjacent low grounds are judiciously planted with well grown timber, and the river, which here enters the county of Waterford, and winds almost under the castle, adds much to the beauty of the scene.