What is recorded here

Indicated Rathmacknee Great is a complete curtain-walled bawn in County Wexford, enclosing a tower house, a pointed gateway and a still-occupied house. Its seven-metre wall walk, machicolations and broad inner court suggest a residence built to be seen, defended and lived in rather than merely survived. The nearby church site and domestic buildings turn the courtyard into a small world where worship, household life and military caution shared one stone boundary.

Situated on a fairly level landscape. Rathmacknee tower house (WX042-029001-) is at the SE angle of the bawn (int. dims. 25.5m E-W; 20m N-S) whose walls survive complete with a wall walk (H 7.3m), except on the S where a house with walls 1.5m thick at one time abutted the tower house (Wexford People 15-07-1911). A pointed gateway (Wth 1.9m; H 2.55m) protected by machicolation is on the E wall, immediately N of the tower house. There is machicolation on the NE angle and the remains of machicolation at the NW angle. An 18th or 19th-century house inside the W wall of the bawn is still occupied. Rathmacknee church site (WX042-029001-) is c. 30m to the S. (Leask 1953) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upoad: 28 May, 2103

Rathmacknee Great was a 16th-century tower house built by an unidentified Gaelic Irish family, likely for local defense and territorial control. It is remembered for its well-preserved bawn and high wall walk, reflecting the defensive architecture of the late medieval period in Ireland.

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