Castle — Ballycolliton

Situated on flat pasture with a river immediately to the SE. Described in the Civil Survey (1654-6) as an 'old little castle ye walls onely standing' (Simington 1934, vol. 2, 306). The land at Ballycolliton was divided between several landowners including 'Sr Nicholas White Kt pprietor in fee by purchas from Edmond Kenedy of Ballycollatan long before the Rebellion (as wee are informed)…John Hurly pprietor in fee by purchas from Mortagh O Bryen of Annagh long before the Rebellion (as wee are informed)…Rory Kenedy pprietor in fee by descent from his Ancestors' (ibid.). In 1677, William Cleburne purchased from Capt. Solomon Cambie "the castles, towns and lands of Ballycollitan, the villadge and lands of Bunnadubber [Bunnabober] and of Killinboy or Knock, Ballycullatan; also that part of Annagh from the Castle of Annagh [TN009-036----] to the ditch of Kilbulloir [Kilbiller], together with all the profits and emoluments from the said castles, towns, villadges and lands," as by a Deed enrolled in the Public Record Office, Dublin, dated 20th July, 1677. William of Ballycollitan Castle, eldest son of "William the Wise," was born 14th September, 1642, died 22nd October, 1684. (Will proved, 5th February, 1684-5, Pub. Rec. Off. Dublin.) Though a firm believer in the "Divine right of Kings," he married the daughter of a Cromwellian officer, Elizabeth Cambie of Annagh Castle, county Tipperary, by whom he had one child, a daughter Elizabeth, born 22nd May, 1682, and died 4th June, 1682. Having no male issue, all his landed estate in Wexford and Tipperary passed to his nephew William, son of his brother Richard of Bunadubber, with the proviso that, "in default of heir's male of their bodies, all his property was to descend to the heirs general of the said William and Richard. In his will he directs that "my body shall be buried in the Church of Kilbarron [TN009-003001-], covering my grave with a plaine marble stone, ingraving thereon my name and coate of Armes. The inscription on the tomb-stone on the vault [TN009-003003-] of Sir William Clebburne, as he is called, is (under a shield of his arms Argent 3 chevronels braced, a chief sable). William, son and heir of Richard of Bunadubber, succeeded to the "castles, towns, and lands of Ballycolitan, Bunnadubber, Knockballycolitan, and part of Annagh, in accordance with the will of his uncle William" (O'Hart 1892 113-5). A small rectangular tower house (ext. dims. 6.3m SW-NE; 4.75m NW-SE; wall T 1.5m) survives three storeys high and may originally have been a storey higher. It is built with roughly coursed limestone rubble with base-batter visible. Nineteenth-century outhouses are attached to the NW, NE and SW faces. A large water tank and bellcote were placed on top of the tower in the nineteenth century. A flat-headed doorway in the centre of the SE wall probably replaced the original doorway and gave access to the ground floor. This is now covered in debris, with a destroyed fireplace in the E angle of the NE wall the only feature visible. The first floor had a wooden ceiling as had the ground floor and measures 2.25m x 3.8m internally with a fireplace in the E angle of the NE wall the flue of which feeds into the ground-floor fireplace flue. Mural stairs in the SE wall give access to a barrel-vaulted second floor via a flat-headed doorway in the S angle. This floor was lit by windows in the NW, SE and NE walls set into large segmental-arched embrasures with wicker centring visible; the windows are now blocked up. There are slop-stones under slit opes along the mural stairs in the SE wall. Windows consist of simple flat, round and ogee-headed single lights. A possible bawn wall/forebuilding (TN009-042002-) is attached to the NE angle of the tower. This is probably a seventeenth-century tower house. The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Tipperary. Vol. 1 - North Tipperary' compiled by Jean Farrelly and Caimin O'Brien (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2002). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Revised by: Caimin O'Brien Date of revised upload: 13 July 2022