Browse Items (581 total)

The sheela-na-gig is a “female exhibitionist figure” carved in stone and found most often in the walls of medieval Irish and British buildings, usually castles or churches. Over one hundred are known to exist in Ireland, roughly twice the number as…

Remains of this south-facing, ogee-headed window still exist in the wall of the tower house. For a contemporary picture from the castle exterior. The view from the window would be of the marsh adjacent to the castle. The window is dubbed “Raleigh’s…

Archaeological remains from Spenser’s privy indicate an ample and healthy diet enjoyed by his household, including various game and high-quality wheat. Moss could have served for wiping. Waste would have fallen down a two-story chute, exiting out…

This portrait of a middle-aged man is modeled loosely on that painted by Benjamin Wilson in 1770, long after Spenser’s death, which was based on an engraving made in 1727 by George Vertue of a supposed portrait of Edmund Spenser in the collection of…

This oil portrait is copied from one currently hanging in the Wilson Library of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. It is thought to have been painted in the 1590s. There is no evidence that Spenser owned such a portrait. He did, however,…

This oil portrait is copied from a painting currently owned by the Elizabethan Gardens, Manteo, North Carolina. It is a variant of the famous Ditchley portrait and was probably painted in the 1590s by the studio of Marcus Gheeraerts the…

This portrait is an imaginary rendering of Elizabeth Boyle, Spenser’s second wife, and fellow occupant of Kilcolman Castle. It is a Photoshopped composite of other portraits of the period. There are no extant portraits of Boyle, although her headless…

The spiral horn from the narwhal was sometimes mistaken in the Middle Ages and Renaissance for a more fantastic object, a unicorn horn. Spenser’s New English contemporary on the Munster plantation, Sir William Herbert, lists a ’unicorn horn’ in the…

On the west wall, facing the window, is a mural of St Christopher carrying the boy Jesus across the river. At his foot is a snake, representing sin and the devil, who is trodden underfoot.

St Christopher does not appear in the Bible but was…

On the table in the Tower House Parlor sits a “mether,” which is a four-sided, four-handled Irish drinking vessel carved of wood. Other examples are found in the Great Hall.

An example from the 16th century with the provenance “Kilcolman, Co.…