What is recorded here

Castle Bamford stands roofless in Goslingstown, its deep window jambs and massive masonry preserving the skeleton of a medieval tower later enlarged into a house. The property shifted from de Valles to Comerfords, then Thomas See, before reaching the Duke of York, yet the stones never stopped absorbing the lives of everyone who passed through them. What remains is not a complete building but a layered wound in the earth, still holding the shape of every hand that built, broke or forgot it.

The Down Survey (1655-6) barony map of Sheelogher indicates a building, consisting of a tower and a house (KK019-039003-), in the centre of ‘Goshinstowne’ townland (Hibernia Regnum, courtesy of Trinity College Dublin). This equates well with the modern townland of Goslingstown and to the location of Castle Bamford in particular. Castle Bamford house is now ruinous. When inspected in 1993 it was found to be a multi-period building containing the fabric of a medieval castle (O’Dwyer, OPW unpublished report, 7 January 1993). O’Dwyer notes that,’in the 1600s Castle Bamford, formerly in the ownership of Thomas See, Irish Papist, was granted to the Duke of York, brother of the king and future King James II [see Calendar of State Paters 1666-69, printed in London in 1908, p. 525] and Books of Survey and Distribution for Co. Kilkenny. As far as I can establish the property was in the hands of the de Valles (or Walls) from Norman times and passed to the Comerfords by marriage c. 1560. I suspect it began as a tower enlarged as a house in the late 16th or early 17th centuries and Georganised c. 1750’ (ibid.). Hogan (1860-1, 374) relates that Bamford was formerly called Banfield and that, 'A castle formerly stood in Banfield, and part of it is modernized into the south wing of the present commodious dwelling-house, as may be observed in the depth of the window jambs and the massiveness of the masonry. Hence this place is best known at the present day as "Castle Bamford"'. Castle Bamford survives as a roofless ruin. See attached: KK019-039001-_01 Extract from Down Survey (1655-6) barony map of Sheelogher Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 6 October 2002

Built in the 17th century, Castle Bamford in Goslingstown is remembered for its historical association with local landholding families and as a rare surviving example of early Irish domestic architecture in the region.

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