Castle - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

Set by a small stream in very marshy area at a point where a small N-S river valley narrows onto a near gorge. The castle commands the valley at this point. The sides of the valley rise steeply to the E, S and W, while to the N the valley opens out to a flat reclaimed floor. The Ordnance Survey letters (1839) record, 'part of the east side of a Castle called the Black Castle in the same townland; the wall was nine feet [c. 2.7m] thick' (O'Flanagan 1930, vol. 1, 203). Carrigan (1905, vol. 2, 269), describes it as, 'now a broken fragment, [which] was the residence of the Rochefords till the Cromwellian confiscations'. The 25-inch OS map depicts Black Castle as a roofless rectangular building (dims. c. 11m x c. 4.5m) orientated NE-SW, with gables to the NW and SE. In 1987 the only visible remains consisted of a massively thick wall sandwiched between two derelict farm buildings.

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 21 December 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.

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.