What is recorded here

Knockycosker is a castle that vanished before anyone drew it, leaving only a house on the River Brosna and a name saved in an old survey. In 1468 Owney Mageoghegan died there from one javelin cast, suggesting the place was real enough to kill and important enough to remember. The castle may have sunk beneath fields, river works or forgetting, but it is still marked in the region and named in the annals.

The monument was inspected in 1983 and described as follows: 'A 19th century house [Knock House] and farm buildings occupy a flat area on the S bank of the River Brosna. No trace of earlier features’(SMR file). No castle is depicted at this location on any edition of the OS 6-inch maps. A castle was marked in this general region on the 17th century Down Survey parish map of Newtown in the barony of Moycashel (NLI, MS 723-4). The terrier of the Down Survey parish map states that ‘there are in this three castles viz., one at Knockycosker'(SMR File). The precise location of this castle has not been identified. In 1468 the Annals of the Four Masters recorded that ‘Owney Mageoghegan was killed by one cast of a javelin in the castle of Cnoc-Ui-Chosgraigh [Knockycosker]’ (O’Donovan 1856, 1055). Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 13 March 2013

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