Settlement deserted - medieval

The National Monuments Service's description

On the banks of the Ouveg River, associated with a castle (KK001-006001-) and motte (KK001-006002-). Orpen (1909, 313-42) mentions that a 'sub-manor held of the signorial manor of Odagh was Rosconnell, including Grenan and Attanagh, lands about the Owveg river, on the border between the county of Kilkenny and Queen's County [Laois]. Early in the thirteenth century, prior to 1209, these lands were held by William de St. Leger. The caput of this manor was probably at Castlemarket, near Rosconnell church [KK001-005001-]'. According to Carrigan (1905, vol. 2, 113), there is a tradition that 'once the chief town of Co. Kilkenny, stood on and around the Court House field, and sites of castle and moat'. Carrigan locates the Court House field to one on the N side of the Ouveg River, while the castle and motte are on the S bank (ibid.). On a Digital Globe aerial image here are at least five parallel linear plots (L c. 140m; Wth c. 13m), aligned NE-SW in the field N of the river, suggestive of burgage plots.

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 25 April 2016

References

Carrigan, Rev. W. 1905 (Reprint 1981) The history and antiquities of the diocese of Ossory, 4 vols. Kilkenny. Roberts Books and Wellbrook Press.

Orpen, G.H. 1909 Motes and Norman castles in Ossory. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 39, 313-42.