What is recorded here

Castle Boolyshea is a ruined three-storey tower house in County Kilkenny, built of rough shale and dated to the late 16th or early 17th century by its gun-loops and defensive form. It stands within a square bawn on a marshy, gorse-covered slope above the Stony Stream, with only the south wall reaching second-floor level and the entrance now completely broken out. The Down Survey maps of 1655-6 still mark it in Cranagh, Ballicallan and Canice, while the Canice terrier names Robert Shea as proprietor in 1640.

On a S-facing slope c. 90m N of the E-W flowing Stony Stream, in a marshy, gorse-covered terrain. There are good views from WNW-SW, elsewhere the view is limited by a rise of ground. The tower house is centrally placed within a square bawn (KK018-025001-). The castle is indicated on the Down Survey (1655-6) barony map of ‘Cranagh’ and on the parish map of both Ballicallan and Canice (Hibernia Regnum, courtesy of Trinity College Dublin). In the terrier accompanying the Canice parish map, the proprietor in 1640 in listed as Robert Shea, Irish Papist (ibid.). It is a rectangular three-storey structure (int. dims. 5.45m N-S; 4.75m E-W; wall T 1.3m) built of relatively small flat pieces of roughly coursed shale with larger quoin stones. Only the S wall survives to second-floor level. The E wall, with a large breach in the middle and the S end of the W wall survive, both to first-floor level. The N wall has largely collapsed with only the lower courses (max. H 1.05m) surviving. The entrance is completely broken out. It would have given access to the ground floor and to a mural stair which rose in the N wall. At ground floor level there is a flat-headed single-light window centrally placed in the S wall and another S of centre in the W wall. At first-floor level there is a flat-headed single-light window with gun-loops on either side of the window embrasure. There is also a gun-loop at the S end of the W wall and two small loops in the SE angle. There is a garderobe chamber in the E wall at first-floor level, the chute for which exists at the S end of the E wall. The defensive features suggest that this tower house dates to the late 16th/early 17th century. See attached: KK018-025001-_01 satellite imagery of tower house within bawn (Google Earth, 27 January 2019) KK018-025001-_02 Extract from Down Survey (1655-6) barony map of ‘Cranagh’ KK018-025001-_03 Extract from Down Survey (1655-6) parish map of ‘Ballicallan’ KK018-025001-_04 Extract from Down Survey (1655-6) parish map of ‘Canice’ Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 29 June 2020

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