What is recorded here

Castlebrack in County Laois was a crowded medieval town when Tadhg Mac Laighnigh Ui Duinn built its castle in 1475. By 1608 it still had halls, kitchens, gardens, orchards, stables and tenant houses, but the village south of the tower has since emptied completely. Only faint earthworks and thick buried walls remain beneath the slope, waiting for someone to imagine the laughter, argument and daily labour that once filled the missing streets.

SW and down-slope from the ruined tower house (LA001-004001-), church (LA001-004003-) and graveyard (LA001-004-) appears to have been the site of a deserted medieval village. Slight remains of earthworks visible. Walls c. 1m thick discovered some years ago in this area. In the O'Doyne Manuscript, it claims that Tadhg Mac Laighnigh Ui Duinn (O'Doyne/Dunne) in 1475 was the builder of this castle (K.W. Nicholls (ed.) 1983, p. 116-7.). In 1608 the castle is described as 'a castle , hall, parlour at end of hall, kitchen, brewhouse, Bakehouse and the rest of the houses within the bawn the haggart and bawns on S side of castle, the garden, the orchard, the parke, the stable and houses for cattle on the west side and also the houses and tenements for tenants and other uses on N and W parts of the said town of Castlebrack (Nicholls (ed.) 1983, 40). Archaeological testing in the vicinity of the tower house and deserted settlement was carried out by John Purcell in 2004 under excavation licence no. 04E1048. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Laois' (Dublin Stationery Office, 1995) compiled by P. David Sweetman, Olive Alcock and Bernie Moran. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 17 December 2007

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