House - 16th/17th century

The National Monuments Service's description

In the townland of Kiltown, the OS Letters of 1839 (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 1, 45) describes, 'the ruin of the chimney of an ancient mansion, said to have belonged to the Brennans. It has the appearance of some antiquity, and it is said that a portion of the adjoining walls existed in the memory of man'. This description is accompanied by a rough sketch of the surviving S gable of the building which shows a large broken out fireplace at ground level, the broken-out masonry continuing up to first-floor level above which there appears to be an off-set, with the scar or coping stones of the roof visible in the masonry of the chimney breast. The chimney itself is diagonally set. According to Carrigan (1905, vol. 2, 162) an important branch of the O'Brenans was located in Kiltown and, 'their residence stood a little to the east of the churchyard in a field called the Closhawn, and was known as "Brenan's Castle." One of its gables remained till about 1880; and it is said to have been 25 ft. [7.62m] high and 7ft. [2.13m] thick. Little mounds, &c., show that the castle and surrounding buildings covered fully an acre of ground'. The illustration suggests that this was a two-storey house dating to the late 16th/early 17th century.

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 20 June 2016

References

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1930 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Kilkenny collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1839. Bray.

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