What is recorded here

Codys Castle stands as a ruined rectangular hollow on a flat-topped hillock in County Kilkenny, once held by the Shee family under the Cody manor of Galmoy. The northern wall still rises several metres above the valley floor, marking the boundary of a home that lost its townland to Cromwell’s forces. A small stream runs twenty metres to the north, carrying rainwater past the stones that watched the valley for centuries.

On a natural flat-topped hillock 1-2m above the valley floor with a small stream c. 20m to the N. There are good views across the valley in all directions. According to Carrigan (1905, vol. 2, 281) the castle was founded by or belonged to the Cody family. He relates how an Inquisition of 1609, ‘found that Sir Richard Shee, lately deceased, held Castletown from Richard Archdeacon or Cody, as of his manor of Galmoy, by fealty. From Sir Richard, Castletown passed to his son, Lucas Shee, whose son, Edmund Shee, forteited the townland under Cromwell’ (ibid.). The castle is roughly centrally placed within a rectangular bawn (KK003-004002-). It survives as a rectangular hollow (dims. 16m N-S x 15m E-W) with only fragments of the N wall (L c. 9m) upstanding. The OS Letters (O’Flanagan 1930, vol. 1, 115) of 1839 state that only the N wall, which was ‘seven feet [2.1m] thick’, was standing. Carrigan (ibid.) describes the N wall as being, ’30 or 40 ft. [9.1-12.2m] high and eleven feet [3.3] thick at the ground’. Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 7 September 2015

Built by the Cody family in the 15th or 16th century, Codys Castle is remembered as a historic site associated with the local gentry of the Galmoy area. Its strategic location on a prominent hillock highlights its defensive and observational significance in the region.

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