Rockforest House

Situated on a natural rise of ground with good views in all directions. According to Lewis (1837, vol. 1, 400) a castle, traditionally called Knockballymaher, was incorporated in the house (TN018-004002-) of a Cromwellian settler, Hutchinson, who arrived in 1660. In the Civil Survey (1654-6) there is no mention of a castle, however, it states that 'uppon the sd lands of Knockballymagher stands the walls of a stone house' (Simington 1931, vol. 1, 13 ). The house at Knockballymagher/Rockforest appears to have been of late seventeenth or early eighteenth-century date as, in a will dated 1718, James Hutchinson left Knockballymagher to his son, James (Parker-Hutchinson family papers, unpublished, NLI, MS 12,060, 39). The house came to be called Rockforest House and was knocked between 1840 and 1902 and a new house built c. 200m to N (Stout 1984, 136). According to a family history 'the old house was originally an old castle but has been added to at different times'. It is described as being 'originally covered with Irish shingles made of oak and nailed like slates with shingles' (NLI, MS 12,060, 44). A further reference to Knockballymagher states that 'it was called a Castle, it has there a small round tower with a wooden stairs winding, the whole building was covered with oak shingles, in a later period was thatched for many years, till pulled down by the Gibson family when they purchased [1852?]' (NLI, MS 12,062, 11). In the Parker-Hutchinson family papers (NLI MS 12,062, 11) there is a reference to an old castle in Rockforest, which was formerly called Knockballymagher townland. It appears that this castle was later incorporated into a house, now gone, probably of seventeenth-century date (TN018-004002-). Vol. 1 - North Tipperary' compiled by Jean Farrelly and Caimin O'Brien (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2002).