What is recorded here

Moonhall Castle lies halfway down a marshy slope in County Kilkenny, its limestone walls reduced to grass-covered footings after centuries of collapse. The Down Survey mapped it in 1655, yet the lost ownership records leave its human history suspended in mystery. A well and deserted settlement still mark the ground beside the ruins, suggesting the castle remained a living anchor long after its stones began to fail.

Midway down an E-facing slope in marshland. This castle is indicated on the Down Survey (1655-6) barony map of Gowran, in what was then the townland of 'Grangecoolepople' and on the Down Survey parish map of Teiscoffin (Hibernia Regnum, courtesy of Trinity College Dublin). The terrier which accompanied the parish map does not survive so there is no information on who the proprietor was in 1640. A very ruinous rectangular castle (ext. dims. 15.7m NE-SW x 8.5m NW-SE) largely visible as grass-covered wall-footings, with the NW and NE wall-footings of an adjoining annex at the W angle (L 2.6m and 3m respectively). The walls of the main structure have collapsed and slumped outwards (Wth 2m; max. H 1.1m). Where visible, remnants of extant masonry indicate randomly coursed limestone rubble construction. There is an associated well (KK020-022002-), known as 'Castle Well', c. 110m to the SW of castle on the E bank of a stream. The earthworks of a deserted settlement (KK020-022004-) are visible immediately E and S of the castle. See attached: KK020-022001-_01 extract from Down Survey (1655-6) barony map of Gowran (Hib. Reg., courtesy of Trinity College Dublin) KK020-022001-_02 extract from Down Survey (1655-6) parish map Teiscoffin in the barony of Gowran (Hib. Reg., courtesy of Trinity College Dublin) Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 24 November 2020

Built by the Purcell family in the late 15th or early 16th century, Moonhall Castle is significant for its representation of Norman-Irish fortified residences and its inclusion in the Down Survey of the 1650s, which documented land ownership in Ireland.

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