Castle (in Ruins)

Situated on fairly level ground towards the top of a W-facing slope. It is marked on a Down Survey (1655-6) map and recorded in the Civil Survey as a 'handsome castle and orchard' owned by Sir Peter Aylward c. 1640 (Simington 1942, 164). Described by O'Donovan c. 1840 as a square castle (O'Flanagan 1929, 4) and a late 19th-century photograph in the collection of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland shows a tower house surviving to the top of a largely destroyed barrel vault. It is now reduced to a pile of rubble forming the rockery of an adjacent house. Motte (WA010-004----) is adjacent to W. O'Flanagan, M. (Compiler) (1929) Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Waterford collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1841. Typescript. Bray. Simington, R. C. (ed.) (1942) The civil Survey AD 1654-1656, vi, the County of Waterford. Irish Manuscripts Commission. Dublin. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Waterford' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1999). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 10th November 2008

Built by or held by Sir Peter Aylward around 1640, Castle Coolbunnia is remembered as a "handsome castle and orchard" in historical surveys, indicating its significance as a notable residence in the 17th century.