Knock Old Castle

Knock Old Castle is a tower house, likely dating to 1603 and 1604, although it was repaired and altered in 1853. The building consists of a rectangular, three-story and attic tower (now reduced in size), with remnants of a ragged wall to the east. A screen wall, originally part of a courtyard, extends south from a tall, conical-roofed, circular angle turret. All surfaces are rubble-built with ashlar dressings.

The tower house has a round-headed doorway on its south wall, and a single roll-moulded window at each level. A dovecot is incorporated into the dormer head. Other external features include a moulded eaves cornice, crowstepped gables, and coped end stacks. Slate roofs cover the structure.

The west gable and west elevation of the angle turret have a single light at each level above the ground floor. The angle turret has a segmental-arched east-facing door, a door above it that opens onto the screen wall’s parapet walkway, and three circular hand-gun ports and two slits on its outer west face. The screen wall’s outer face is finished with corbelled and crenellated parapets linked to a conical-roofed, corbelled round turret to the south.

The nearby new Knock Castle was designed by J T Rochead around 1852, and he may also have been responsible for the alterations to the Old Castle.