What is recorded here

Walterstown Castle stood on Pigeon House Hill in County Kildare, where a small castle belonged to the Fitzgeralds before two churches, a possible nunnery and graveyards gathered around it. The hill still holds a little mortared wall and a larger fallen mass of stones, while the land keeps the shape of a lost neighbourhood. What is gone is not forgotten; it has simply stopped answering in the usual way.

On the moderately steep W-slope of ‘Pigeon House Hill’, overlooking a small W-flowing stream c. 35m to the S. A possible nunnery (KD027-025----) and graveyard (KD027-025001-) lie c. 120m to the WNW, and a church (KD027-027----) and graveyard (KD027-027001-) lie c. 125m to the SSW. The 1st ed. (1838) of the OS 6-inch map records the ‘Site of’ a second castle (KD027-028----) c. 180m to the ESE. In 1837, according to O’Conor’s Ordnance Survey Letter (Herity 2002, 145 (157)), ‘A small (part of the) ‘buttment’ of a Castle is to be seen … It is said that a family of the Fitzgeralds, originally had this castle in their possession.’ A very small portion of mortared masonry (1.5m N-S; 1.1m E-W; H 0.3-1.5m) with some inner and outer facing stones appears to survive in situ. A larger portion of displaced masonry (2m by 1.3m; H 1.6m) lies immediately to the S. Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy Date of upload: 10 October 2012

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.