What is recorded here

Rathnaleen Castle stands as a ruined bawn on a north-facing pasture slope in County Tipperary, where a single length of eastern limestone wall still marks the ghost of a taller tower. The broad shallow bank enclosing the southern yard suggests a defensive perimeter designed to confuse attackers rather than simply stop them. What remains is a fragment of human ambition, reduced to rubble and memory, yet the shape of the place still hints at the lives once lived within its bounds.

Situated on a N-facing slope in pasture. A ruinous tower house (TN021-025001) with only a length of the E wall surviving, constructed of roughly coursed limestone rubble with some conglomerate stones. The wall-footings continue N for a further 4m. A pile of collapsed masonry lies west of this wall. The E and W wall (H 6.7m) and part of the S wall were still standing when visited by the OS c. 1840, internal diam. E-W 7m (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 1, 201). A bawn (dims. 52.5m N-S; 51m E-W) to the S of the building is defined by a shallow, broad bank (Wth c. 6m) sloping gently to the exterior and almost level with the interior. The E return is not clear. Foundations of a building along the N bank of the bawn may be the remains of a gatehouse. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien. Date of upload: 22 September 2008

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