What is recorded here

Castle, unclassified in Esker marks a lost Purcell stronghold in County Kilkenny, reduced to an old stump when recorded in 1655-6 and destroyed before Carrigan wrote in 1905. It stood in low flat grassland above the River Dinin, near a house and cabbins, with wide valley views that suit a defensive home. The castle is no longer visible, but the land still holds the shape of its absence: a place where ownership, memory and ruin became hard to separate.

In low flat grassland just above present, meandering, course of the River Dinin. There are fairly good views across the valley in all directions. On the Down Survey (1655-6) Parish map of Mothill, there is a castle drawn in the S portion of the townland, immediately E of a house (KK010-117----). The terrier accompanying the map records, ‘There is at Esker an old Stump of a Castle with a House and Cabbins [KK010-118002-]’, with the proprietor listed as ‘Edm[on]d Purcell Ir[ish] Pa[pis]t’. According to Carrigan (1905, 202) this townland belonged to the Purcells and their, 'mansion, or castle, stood about Delany's farm-yard, in Esker', he goes on to say that, 'Esker castle was entirely destroyed more than a century ago', which suggests possibly in the 18th century. The area around this farm was visited in 1987 but the castle was not visible at ground level. The precise location of this castle is unknown. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 19 December 2016

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