Qualla: Siege of Cahir Castle

Siege of Cahir Castle: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit James O'Neill, CC BY-SA 4.0. When word reached London that the Earl of Essex had taken Cahir Castle - the strongest fortress in Ireland, an island stronghold on the River Suir held by the Catholic Butlers - the queen was not impressed. The defenders, Elizabeth I sniffed, had been merely "a rabble of rogues." Essex had landed in Ireland in April 1599 with sixteen thousand troops and thirteen hundred horse, the largest army ever sent across the Irish Sea. By May he had reduced one of the kingdom's most formidable castles. He had every reason to be pleased. The queen's verdict damaged him politically and contributed to his eventual destruction. A cannonball is still lodged in the wall of the main tower at Cahir, fired in those May days of 1599 by Essex's gunners and never since removed. It is one of the most tangible relics in Ireland of the long Tudor war that crushed the old Gaelic and Catholic order.

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Image: James O'Neill | CC BY-SA 4.0

Siege of Cahir Castle: The strongest castle in Ireland

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit irisheyes, CC BY-SA 2.0. Cahir Castle sat on a rock in the middle of the River Suir, with a great keep behind six stout towers and thick curtain walls. For any English army hoping to push west into rebel country it had to be reduced. The owner was Thomas Butler, 4th Baron Cahir, an Irish nobleman trying ...

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Image: irisheyes | CC BY-SA 2.0

Siege of Cahir Castle: Dragging guns by hand

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Martin Richard Phelan, CC BY-SA 2.0. On the morning of 25 May 1599, Essex divided his army into three battles - vanguard, main, and rearguard - and brought his artillery up by water to the quay at Clonmel. Then came the hard part: dragging the guns the ten miles to Cahir. With no draught horses available, the cannon...

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Image: Martin Richard Phelan | CC BY-SA 2.0

Siege of Cahir Castle: Whitsun Sunday cannonade

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Thomas Lawrence, Public domain. George Bingham, who had successfully besieged Maguire's island castle at Enniskillen in 1594, surveyed the ground with Essex in the evening. They chose an approach along the east bank by way of old ditches and a wall, and ordered a trench dug to within fifty paces of the castle. ...

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Image: Thomas Lawrence | Public domain

Siege of Cahir Castle: Escape through a watermill

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit William Stafford (ed.)., Public domain. Across the river, the rebel White Knight - Edmund Fitzgibbon - tried to relieve the castle with a few score kerne, the light-armed Gaelic foot. They could only withdraw the unfit defenders. Essex sent Christopher St Lawrence, the son of Lord Howth, to break the bridges connecting...

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Image: William Stafford (ed.). | Public domain

Siege of Cahir Castle: A rabble of rogues

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Myself, CC BY-SA 3.0. Essex left a hundred men under George Carey - who had taken a face wound in the siege from which he would later die - and crossed the Suir to enter rebel territory in west Munster. The artillery was mounted on the castle walls, the breaches repaired, the sick and wounded sent bac...

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Image: Myself | CC BY-SA 3.0