Castle in ruins — Courthoyle Old

Situated on a gentle W-facing slope at the W foothills of Carrickbyrne Hill, and at the S edge of the ringwork (WX035-014002-). The Howel family were in Ireland since at least 1180 and held Carrickbyrne by half a knight’s fee from Valence into the 15th century, by which time it had passed to the Walshes of the Mountain at Castlehale, Co. Kilkenny (KK031-026----), with whom they shared an ancestor in Stephen Howel in the late 13th century (Brooks 1950, 100-01). In 1619 Walter Walshe possessed at his death Castlehale in Co. Kilkenny as well as Courthoyle, Raheenaclonagh, Rahindoy (Raheenduff?), and Raherry (Raheevarren?) (Jeffrey 1979, 200). The castle and 500 acres at Courthoyle was owned by Robert Devereux n 1640 of Ballyshannon (WX035-016----) together with 500 acres in Raheenaclonagh and Raheenduff in Adamstown parish (Simington 1953, 202-03). Only the ground floor and the first floor under the collapsed E-W barrel vault remains (ext. dims. 10.3m E-W; 7.8m N-S) but the walls have good granite quoins and a base batter. The original doorway may have been in the E wall where the embrasure is broken out in a wide opening. There is a newel stairs, now destroyed, at the SE angle. There is evidence of six long loops or squints on the three surviving ground floor embrasures and there is a cross-loop on the stairwell. There is a destroyed garderobe chute in the N wall. There are corbels in the N and S walls to support the first floor and a rectangular window survives in the W wall. There is an embrasure with a lintelled floor and destroyed window at the E end of the N wall, and there is a curious hinge stone at the N end of the E wall. See the attached section from the Down Survey (1656-8) parish map (N at top right) reproduced courtesy of the National Library of Ireland (Ms 725) The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Wexford' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1996). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload/revision: 15 October, 2012