Rathdowney

Described by Carrigan as 'a town, Rathdowney cannot boast of any great antiquity. It must have been a very small village in 1665, as only about a dozen persons paid hearth money in the whole townland of Rathdowney in this year' (Carrigan 1905, vol. 2, 340). Described by Feehan as 'Rathdowney takes its name from a 'rath' (LA028-055003-) which stood until 1840 at the north end of the town square, close to the site of the medieval parish church (LA028-055001-) of Rathdowney, which was where the Protestant church stands. The ringfort may have been the seat of the Gaelic civil power in the local lordship in early medieval times, and together with the church made the place a natural focus for settlement which attracted the Normans in the late twelfth century' (Feehan 1983, 397-8). In the thirteenth century the manor of Rathdowney figures prominently in the Ormond Deeds (Cunningham 1987, 166). Between 1207 and 1213 Adam de Hereford was granted the 'tuath of Mamocle in which his castle (LA028-055003-) of Radouney[Rathdowney] stands' (Cunningham 1987, 166). The historical references to the manor of Rathdowney along with the presence of a medieval church and thirteenth century castle all suggest that the present village of Rathdowney is built on the site of a thirteenth century settlement. This settlement is lkely to have been located on either side of the main street from the Church (LA028-055001-) and ringwork (LA028-055003-) at the Northern end of the town stretching southwards towards the River at the southern end of the modern village of Rathdowney.