Kilhile Castle (in ruins)

Kilhile in Dunbrody parish was a possession of the Cistercian abbey (WX039-030001-) from its foundation (Hore 1900-11, vol. 3, 38). At the Suppression in 1541 John Devereux held 60 acres from the abbey at Kylheyle, which were ultimately granted to Sir Osborne Itchingham in 1545 (Jeffrey 1979. 156). According to the Civil Survey (1654-5) John Etchingham owned 135 acres and the castle at Kilheale in 1640 (Simington 1953, 188, 194). It is situated towards the top of the E-facing slope of a N-S valley, with a stream c. 200m to the E. Only the N wall (ext. L 6.3m) and adjacent parts of the E and W walls survive to the wall-walk with good quoins and a base-batter. The pointed entrance of undressed stones towards the centre of the N wall is protected by machicolation operated from the fourth floor, and a murder hole in the lobby. The lobby leads through a lintelled doorway to the ground floor and to a mural stairs in the N wall which rises only to a garderobe at the NE angle and a lintelled doorway to the first floor under the destroyed N-S vault. There is a chamber, perhaps an oubliette or hidden chamber, in the NW angle at the first floor. The ground floor has an small chamber in the NE angle but the garderobe-chute from the first floor is broken out into it. From the ground-floor lobby a passage in the N and W walls must have provided access to the three storeys above the vault, perhaps by means of a newel stairs at the SW angle. The third and fourth floors are supported on corbels in the E and W walls, and there is fragmentary evidence of fireplaces in the W wall at the the second and third floors, but the flue projects from the outer face of the W wall only from the fourth floor. The N wall has a single rectangular window at the second floor and there is a narrower light above it at the third floor, but the machicolation over the entrance doorway is the only feature in the N wall at the level of the fourth floor. Archaeological testing (08E0561) c. 30-50m from the tower house to the S and W produced no related material (Stafford 2011b) The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Wexford' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1996). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload/revision: 17 June, 2013

Kilhile Castle was held by John Devereux in 1541, at the time of the Suppression of the Monasteries, as part of land previously owned by the Cistercian abbey. It is remembered as an example of monastic landholding and its subsequent transfer to lay ownership during the Tudor reforms.