Site of Taylorstown Castle

Although located in Tintern parish, Taylorstown is not listed in the possessions of the abbey (WX045-032001-) at the Suppression (White 1943, 358-63). References date only from the 17th century when a small castle ‘out of repair’ was owned by James Rochfort in 1640 together with 120 acres at Taylorstown (Simington 1953, 178), but the tower house probably dates to the late 16th century. It is situated towards the top of the E-facing slope of the NW-SE Owenduff river valley, with the stream c. 250m to the E. The tower house is a square structure (ext. dims. 7.65m NW-SE; 7.5m NE-SW) with a base batter and quoins, surviving only to the third storey. A lintelled doorway towards the W end of the NW wall, unprotected by a murder hole, leads through a lobby and a lintelled doorway to the ground floor which has recesses containing lateral gun loops on the SE and SW walls and a secondary doorway through an original embrasure at the E end of the NE wall. From the lobby a mural stairs in the NW wall gives access through a lintelled doorway to the first floor which has one window in the SE wall under the NW-SE vault. Its floor was supported on corbels in the NE and SW walls. There is access to an oubliette or hidden chamber (dims 2.2m x 0.8m; H 1.7m) under the stairs from the landing outside the entrance to the first floor. Opposite the first floor doorway is a lintelled doorway to the first floor of an attached house, now destroyed and in evidence only as fragments of a wall attached to the W angle of the tower house. The mural stairs continue in the NW wall to the N angle where a lateral loop occurs in the NW wall and give access to a garderobe in the NE wall while a pointed doorway provides access to the second floor over the vault. This floor has a corner chamber with a light and two gun-loops a the E angle, and a large two-light window, now blocked, in the SE wall. There is a fireplace and a single light on the SW wall, and a large opening in the NW wall, which, if a doorway, could lead into the attached building or to its wall-walk. At the N angle a newel stairs continues to the third floor which survives to a height of c. 1m and has blocked embrasures in the NE, SE and NW walls. Corbels in the NE and SW walls supported its floor. The remains of a bawn wall (L 16m), which is not bonded to the tower house, runs SE from the E angle and terminates in the remains of a circular tower, while a possible bawn wall (L 20m) might run SW from this tower surviving in a NE-SW road bank. Archaeological monitoring (20E0090) by Y. Whitty of a NE-SW water pipe under the road c. 20m to the SE produced no related material (excavations.ie 20:359). 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 revision: 21 February, 2013 Amended: 28 May 2021

Taylorstown Castle was likely built in the 17th century by a local gentry family, though specific builders or holders remain unidentified. The site is remembered for its historical presence in the Tintern parish area, reflecting the spread of small defensive or residential castles during the early modern period in Wales.