Rathcoffey Ho. — Rathcoffey Demesne

A National Monument. According to Leask, lands in the area were granted to the de Wogan's in 1317 and a castle (KD010-018001-) was probably built shortly afterwards (SMR File). The castle was attacked in 1454, fortified in 1641 (Harbison 1975, 126), and the mansion was built post-c.1785 (Bence-Jones 1978, 239). Prominently sited on the SE shoulder of a hill in arable land, with a panoramic view from N clockwise to WSW and overlooking an enclosure (KD010-016----) c. 500m to NE. A gatehouse (KD010-018002-) stands slightly upslope to NW and low earthworks (KD010-018003-), visible on an aerial photograph (CUCAP BDU036), to the N and E may mark late-18th/19th century garden features. Sections of the Pale Boundary Ditch survive some two miles away to NNW (KD010-001----) and c. 1300m away to SSW (KD010-021----). The site comprises the poorly preserved remains of a 14th century castle subsequently incorporated (above and to W) into a 17th century fortified house (KD010-018004-) which was in turn incorporated into a late 18th century mansion (KD010-018005-). Render and plaster obscure the detail, especially of the 17th century phase, but the earliest remains, in the NE angle, are of a rectangular structure (int. dims. L 15.5m E-W; Wth 6.18m N-S; wall T 1.9m) built of unbattered rubble masonry with a wicker-centred, barrel-vaulted ceiling (H 3.1m) orientated on an E-W axis over the ground floor. Two loops in the S wall (at E end, and W of centre) are original. Two external doorways, in the N and E walls, are later insertions and the N wall also contains traces of a now blocked-up, earlier doorway (Wth 1.15m), to E of centre, and the sill-stone of a blocked-up window at its E end. The S wall contains three doorways giving internal access to the brick-vaulted ground-floor of the later building phase, the W portion of which is accessed via two doorways in the W wall and to which phase three plain windows in the N wall also belong. Back-to back fireplaces are inserted at ground-floor level just E of centre. First-floor level is inaccessible but was served by two wooden stairs, in the SE corner and at the W end of the later building, from where the castle's first floor was subsequently accessed. At second-floor level traces of a blocked twin-light window are visible in the E wall. The three-storied mansion has a S facing front of three bays recessed between two bay projections, linked at ground-floor level by an arcade. Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy Date of upload: 10 June 2011