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One never knows who might come calling. Behind the curtain in the Parlor is a gun loop, a hole through which a gun can be fired, and which provides a clear shot at the front door leading into the Great Hall. Spenser lived at Kilcolman under constant…

The Irish were and are famous for their skill on the harp. The harp is Ireland’s national symbol and became so by decree of King Henry VIII, when it was also featured on Irish coinage. The early modern harp used by the Irish would have been smaller…

When the great Spanish Armada was defeated by the English and blown away from the English Channel in 1588, many of its ships sailed homeward by first travelling north, rounding Scotland and Ireland, then travelling out into the open Atlantic on their…

When the great Spanish Armada was defeated by the English and blown away from the English Channel in 1588, many of its ships sailed homeward by first travelling north, rounding Scotland and Ireland, then travelling out into the open Atlantic on their…

The prehistoric great Irish elk was long extinct by Spenser’s time, but its bones and magnificent antlers would have been found preserved in bogs. Examples can be found today, mounted as trophies, in many Irish castles and…

Archaeologist Eric Klingelhofer suggests that a kitchen building may have been attached to an interior bawn wall (also hypothetical) that runs roughly SW-NE between the Tower House and the east bawn wall. A small kitchen building is therefore…

These long darts, or throwing spears with finger-loops, resemble those used by the native Irish and are modeled on the weapon held by English Captain Tom Lee in the portrait (c. 1590s) by Marcus Gheeraerts (Tate Gallery, London). In John Derricke’s…

The lute was a popular renaissance instrument similar to the modern-day guitar. Eric Klingelhofer’s excavations of Kilcolman in the mid-1990s uncovered a tuning peg for a lute or similar stringed instrument. The find was located in a stratification…

This great oak mantelpiece is fancifully modeled after two different early modern wall-pieces found in situ in Ireland today: 1) the allegorical figures in plaster wainscoting in the Long Gallery of Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Tipperary, commissioned in the…

A mantle is a common type of heavy woolen cloak found in medieval and early modern Ireland. Fantastic, colorful and richly woven varieties are described in medieval Irish poetry. Elaborate and expensive mantles would have been worn by the rich and…