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At the crest of the W end of a low E-W ridge. A castle known as Caislean Riabac of the clann Fogarthaigh was captured with ordnance in 1499 by Garret Mór FitzGerald, Earl of Kildare (Kerrigan 1984, 200; AFM vol. 4, 1251). It was captured again by his son, Garreth Óg, the ninth Earl, in 1526 at the behest of O Conor Rua (ALC, 2, 257), but it was captured and destroyed by O'Donnell in 1527 (ibid. 261). However, O'Conor Rua and Mac Diarmada besieged it for 6 weeks later in the year with a siege engine but failed to capture it (ibid. 263-5).
The land was granted to Capt. Theopholis Sandford in the 1650s which became the core the Sandford estate. The castle was known as Caislean Riabhach, meaning speckled, and was attached to Castlereagh House (Weld 1832, 467; Timoney 1990, 15; 1993, 20; Rochford 1994), but nothing remains even of the House which was taken down in the 1960s.
Compiled by: Michael Moore
Date of upload: 24 August 2010
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