In 1712 Henry, 8th Earl of Thomond, disposed of his estate, and the castle passed to the Studdert family, who lived there until the neighbouring mansion was built. For some years afterwards it was partly used for a police barrack, and now it is in the hands of a caretaker. AUTHORITIES CONSULTED. MS. Ordnance Survey. Frost, “History of the County Clare.” White, “History of Clare.” O’Donoghue, “Memoirs of the O’Briens.” B. Adams and M. Adams, “History of the Adams Family.” Murphy, “Cromwell in Ireland.” Dwyer, “Diocese of Killaloe.” Joyce, “Irish Names of Places.” Gilbert, “Affairs in Ireland, 1641-52” (Apporismical Discovery of Treasonable Faction). Gilbert, “History of the Irish Confederation by Richard Bellings.” Parliamentary Gazetteer. State Documents. State Papers. Proceedings of Royal Society of Antiquaries, Ireland. Westropp, “Normans in Thomond;” Macnamara, “Inchiquin, Co. Clare;” Shirley and O’Brien, “Extracts from the Journal of Thomas Dineley,” all in _Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries, Ireland_. Westropp, “On the Churches of County Clare,” in Proceedings of R.I.A. “Bunratty,” _Dublin Saturday Magazine_. _CARLOW CASTLE_ The town of Carlow, Catherlough or Catherlogh, is situated on the banks of the Barrow, five and a half miles south-by-west of Castledermot near the junction of the above river with the Burren. The name signifies “the city on the lake,” but the sheet of water from which it derived its name has disappeared. The castle stands on a slight eminence to the west of the town on the east bank of the river, where it commanded the ford. The present ruins consist of two round towers, and the western wall, which measures about 105 feet in length and some 70 feet in height. One of the towers is joined to this structure, and a small portion of the north and south walls adhere to both turrets respectively. The doors were remarkably low and narrow, and light was admitted almost entirely by loopholes. In Thomas Dineley’s quaint diary he states that the fortress was built of freestone, and a picture in the same work represents it with gables and a high-pitched roof. It is flanked by round towers and has many tall chimneys. It appears to be surrounded by a low battlemented wall, and to have numerous little out-houses. Like so many castles in Ireland, local tradition ascribes its erection to King John, but Eva, Strongbow’s wife, Isabel, their daughter, Hugh le Bigod, 4th Earl of Norfolk, and Bellingham, Lord Deputy of Ireland, have been mentioned by other authorities. Ryan, in his history of Carlow, deals with the likelihood of each claim, and thinks that it was most probably built by Hugh de Lacy. He is said to have erected it about 1180, but the architecture is rather that of the beginning of the thirteenth century. The castle is mentioned in the charter of William, Earl Marshal.