Kilkenny Castle — Kilkenny West

Poorly preserved remains of the W angle of Kilkenny Castle which belonged to the Dillon family survives standing just below ridge of high ground with good views of surrounding countryside. Holy well (WM023-024---) 330m to NE, church (WM023-025----), graveyard (WM023-025001-) and chapel (WM023-025002-) 100m to E with abbey (WM023-026---) 180m to SSE. This castle is depicted as a tower house type building on the 1659 Down Survey map of the barony of Kilkenny West (NLI, MS 723-4). In 1307 King Edward II granted Sir Henry Dillon of Drumraney the ‘custody of the manor of Kilkenny-West, forfeited by Hugh de Lacie, to hold, with all the appurtenances, during pleasure, rendering £4 into the Exchequer for the first year, and for every year after the full extent of the manor’ (Lodge 1789, 137). In 1604 Theobald Dillion of Costello-Gallen, Co. Mayo was granted a ‘weekly Monday market at Kilkenny-West, in Dillons Country’ along with ‘two annual fairs there, to be held on Whitson Monday, and 13 August, paying yearly for the same 20 shillings Irish’ (ibid., 178). The terrier of the 1659 Down Survey map of Kilkenny parish records that in 1641 the lands of Kilkenny West belonged to James Dillon, Earl of Roscommon (NLI, MS 723-4). The terrier states that in Kilkenny there is 'a Castle with some Houses and Cabbins'(NLI, MS 723-4). The W angle of the castle survives upstanding to wall-walk level (H c. 8m) which is indicated by a string course visible on the SW wall of the castle and by 5 surviving corbels of an angle machicolation. The walls of the castle are built with coursed rubble with base batter visible and alternating cut stone quoins. The quoins have been robbed out of the W angle of the castle up to first floor level. Only a short section of the NW wall (L 3.7m) and SW wall (L 5.5m; wall T 1.7m) of the castle survives upstanding while the grass-covered wall footings mark the outline of the levelled castle walls. The castle appears to have been 4 storeys high with all floors supported on wooden beams the holes of which are visible in the internal face of the SW wall. The remains of a destroyed single light flat headed chamfered window with hood moulding can be seen at second floor level in SW wall. Directly above this window are the remains of the W embrasure of a destroyed window at third floor level. On the upstanding section of NW wall there are the remains of a destroyed window in the centre of the wall at first, second and third floor levels. Internally the first floor was wooden supported on a wall plate carried on stone corbels (Wth 0.27m x H 0.33m; D 0.25m) two of which are still visible in the inner face of the SW wall. This castle had been previously visited in 1978 when the castle was described as 'The ruins are very fragmentary. The NW corner still stands to a height of about 25 feet [7.6m]. The W wall (T 1.6m) has a slight batter. At the top of the wall there are the remains of abutments for a small turret. Traces of a string course also survive. A window head still survives in an ope about half way up with a fallen mullion stone below. The W and S walls now consist of merely grass covered stone foundations. The N wall also contains some of the corbels or abutments plus a string course for a small turret. There is also one dressed window in situ. In the interior of the W wall there are some large holes of square shape probably for a stairway. Again good facing stones are in evidence. There are no clear traces of earthworks' (SMR file). Depicted on the 1837 OS 6-inch map as a rectangular building which appears to have had all four walls upstanding. The castle is orientated on a NW-SE axis. The 1910 OS 25-inch map shows only the NW angle surviving of the castle which suggests that the walls of the castle collapsed or were taken down between 1837 and 1910. Compiled and revised by: Caimin O'Brien Date of revised upload: 6 July 2015