What is recorded here

Ramsgrange was a monastic out-farm on the estate of Dunbrody Abbey, still worked directly by monks when the Suppression came in 1541. A castle rose there later, held by Confederate Catholics in 1642 until Anthony Treviso sent men from Duncannon to burn it and capture Keating with about twenty others. They were exchanged for the Countess of Ormonde and her children, while John Etchingham owned the ruined castle by 1640. Its exact position has slipped away, leaving only the name and the memory of fire.

Ramsgrange was on the estate of Dunbrody Abbey (WX044-031001-) and the grange element of the name suggests that it was a monastic grange or out-farm. It appears to have been run directly by the monks at the Suppression in 1541 when they held 120 acres there but there is no mention of a tenant (Hore 1900-11, vol. 3, 127). A castle at Ramsgrange was occupied by the Confederate Catholics in 1642 during a siege of Duncannon fort (WX044-015001-). The castle was attacked and burnt by a sortie from the fort under the command of Anthony Treviso. The commander of the castle, a man called Keating, was captured with about 20 of his men, but they were later exchanged for the Countess of Ormonde, the wife of the supreme Royalist leader, and her children, who had been detained in Waterford in retaliation (ibid. vol. 4, 72-3). According to the Civil Survey (1654-5) a ruined castle at Ramsgrange was owned by John Etchingham in 1640 (Simington 1953, 188, 194). The location of this castle is not known. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 18 June, 2013

Built by the monks of Dunbrody Abbey as a monastic grange, Castle, unclassified in Ramsgrange, was likely held by the Cistercian order until the Suppression of the Monasteries in the 16th century. It is remembered as part of the extensive agricultural and economic network of the abbey.

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