What is recorded here

One Purcell family lost its castle before the surveyors arrived, leaving only a stump behind in Kilcollan. The Pigeon House still stands nearby, a small square ghost of the estate's grander days. Whatever rooms, halls or lives filled that castle are gone, taken uprooted from the earth and forgotten by time.

On the Down Survey (1655-6) Parish map ot Mothill, there is a castle drawn in the NW portion of Kilcollan townland. The terrier accompanying the map of records, ‘at Killcollan another Stump of a Castle’', with the proprietor listed as ‘Edm[on]d Purcell Ir[ish] Pap[is]t’. According to Carrigan (1905, vol. 2, 202), the church of Kilcollan (KK010-121----), 'probably stood a few fields east of the Pigeon House, in the "Old Meadow," which was also the site of Kilcollan castle and other ancient buildings [KK010-103002-], uprooted from the foundations many years ago'. The 'Pigeon Ho.', a small square structure (c. 4m NE-SE x c. 4m NW-SE), is indicated on the 1st (1839) ed. OS 6-inch map and indicated, but not named, on the subsequent 1947 revision. The precise location of the castle within the townland is unknown. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 14 January 2019

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