Bawn

The National Monuments Service's description

On the flood plain of the River Goul with land flat in all directions, though rising slightly to E. The river runs roughly N-S along the W edge of the bawn. According to Carrigan (1905, vol. 2, 299-300), the castle and estate belonged to the Butlers of Ormond, ‘from at least 1560 to 1698, in which latter year they disposed of both, by a fee-farm grant, to a Scotchman named Mr. Hely, ancestor of the present proprietor’. A tower house (KK008-087----) occupies the N portion of the bawn which is on a raised platform (dims. c. 72m N-S; c. 60m E-W). A wide silted-up fosse (Wth 5.5m; D below int. 0.84-1.65m; D below ext. 0.54m) encloses the platform on the N, E and S side. It is described in the OS Letters (1839) as, ‘a deep trench full of water on the south and east sides, and on the other sides a deep and rapid stream’ (O’Flanagan (ed.) 1930, vol. 1, 147-81 (48-9)). Only the E wall (L 66.4m; T 1m; H 2.7m above int.; H c. 3.2m above ext.) of the bawn survives upstanding, with a gatehouse S of centre in this wall, both have an external base-batter (bawn H c. 1.8m; Wth 0.5m; gatehouse c.2m; Wth 0.7) . According to the OS Letters (ibid.) the bawn had ‘a round tower in each angle’, however, only the base (max. ext. H 1.6m; wall T c. 0.8m) of the NE angle turret survives. In places the upper portion of the inner face of the bawn (above 1m) has been robbed out and the wall has been repaired and re-faced though not to its full thickness (T c. 0.9m).
The bawn was accessed via a causewayed entrance (Wth 3.5m; H 0.67m) across the, largely infilled, fosse leading to the gatehouse. The gatehouse has two storeys with parapet above the high pointed segmental archway (H c. 4.3m; Wth 2.93m; L c. 4.5m; N wall T 1.45-1.6m; S wall T 0.92-1.25m), the second floor been carried on a wooden floor supported by corbels. The E wall of the gatehouse is missing, though around the arch it has been repaired (T 0.7m). The voussoirs of the arch on this side appear to be 18th-century replacements, probably contemporary with the now demolished Foulkscourt House, formerly c. 200m to the SE. The gatehouse is accessed from a stair which rises in the bawn wall to the N. Both chambers are lit by round-headed single-light windows in the W wall, both with a spud and eye-stone for a wooden shutter. The first-floor chamber has a garderobe which projects out over the S wall of the bawn, the chute exiting into the bawn. The garderobe chamber is lit by a broken-out window in the E wall. The masonry between the garderobe chamber and the E end of the S wall of the first-floor chamber is largely missing. There was a fireplace in the S wall of both chambers, though only portion of the lintel of the second-floor fireplace survives, projecting out from the W wall. The lintel is flat, punch-dressed and joggle-jointed. There is a wall-cupboard at the W end of the N wall at first-floor level and at second-floor level there is one at the W end of the N wall and another at the N end of the W wall. The wall-walk along the parapet on the W wall is supported by an internally projecting corbel course. Within the bawn, there is an embrasure on either side of the gatehouse, the N one beneath the stair and the S one beneath the garderobe chamber, both have embrasures for a shot-hole. There is only one other embrasure (Wth 0.52m; H 0.6m) evident in the bawn wall, 10m S of the gatehouse and 1.63m above internal ground level.

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of revised upload: 12 March 2019

References

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

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.