# Six catastrophic weather events in British history



## Brian G Turner (Jun 30, 2015)

http://www.historyextra.com/article/medieval/6-most-catastrophic-weather-events-british-history

*1) ‘De Grote Mandrenke’, 1362*
*2) Europe’s bitterly cold winter, 1407–8*
*3) The Great Tudor Drought, 1540–41*
*4) The Lewes Avalanche, 1836*
*5) The Great Tempest of 1703*
*6) The Climate Crisis, 1815–17*

A couple familiar - and perhaps not so familiar - ones there.


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## BAYLOR (Jun 30, 2015)

What about the killer smog that hit London in 1952?


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## HareBrain (Jul 1, 2015)

Brian Turner said:


> 3) The Great Tudor Drought, 1540–41



Nonsense -- there were plenty of Tudors around then.


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## Ray McCarthy (Jul 1, 2015)

Handy to know if writing Historical Fiction Great Britain, Ireland, Western Europe any of those periods.
I'm wanting to write a novel set sometime between 1200 and 1699, or maybe 1799 at latest. I need to check when some Irish castles / Fortified homes were inhabited.


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## Jo Zebedee (Jul 1, 2015)

Ray McCarthy said:


> Handy to know if writing Historical Fiction Great Britain, Ireland, Western Europe any of those periods.
> I'm wanting to write a novel set sometime between 1200 and 1699, or maybe 1799 at latest. I need to check when some Irish castles / Fortified homes were inhabited.



Specific ones, or general? Have a look at Tower houses - they were around from at least the late medieval period and some, like some of the bawns, from before. And you know there was a large castle around here occupied from 1178, right. And a source who used to be a tour guide in it for a few years ...


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## Ray McCarthy (Jul 1, 2015)

@Jo Zebedee
Tower Houses and Bawns are both the sort of "fortified" homes I mean. There are over 900 in Co. Clare! The natives liked doing a form of the Norman Keep as a house.

Yes, well I need to find out more about the John de Courcy Family, Hugh de Lacy, Dalway's Bawn, when habitation of Carrick castle stopped (I know when it started), when inhabitation of Bunratty Castle started. More about King John's Castle in Limerick.
More about the Church at Kilroot (Dean Swift was there for a while) and St. Nicolas in Carrick

I'd be mad not base most of the story in Carrickfergus area, Bunratty and Limerick Old City / King John's Castle. (Easier to write about landscapes / harbours / places you know!)

I'll research other places though to see if they need to be in the story. I'm sort of drawn to the period of Grace O'Malley straddling reign of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I

I think my MC and close friends will be either fictional or minor nobles of the period from Carrickfergus area.


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