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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Castle - motte

Gowran Demesne, County Kilkenny, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Castle - motte, Gowran Demesne, County Kilkenny, with a pin at the register's coordinates
Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915), covering this location. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland. The pin is ours, placed from the register's coordinates.

The record

Townland
Gowran Demesne
County
Kilkenny
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Not indicated
Latest-edition OS map
Not indicated
Coordinates
52.62915, -7.06009
SMR number
KK020-060005-

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

4 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1790 map "Composite: Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1790 · Composite: Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1869 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1904 · Sheet 14, 1904 (University Library, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)

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This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

Following the acquisition of the Kingdom of Leinster by Richard de Clare (Strongbow) in 1172, his followers were rewarded with portions of the kingdom and Gowran went to Theobald fitz Walter, Chief Butler of Ireland (Carrigan 1905, vol. 3, 400). It is likely that a motte and bailey castle (KK020-060005-) was erected in Gowran around this time. Gowran became the principal seat of the Butlers for a short period from the second half of the 14th century, when they lost Nenagh (KK020-037001-), until 1391 when they acquired Kilkenny Castle (KK020-019078-). In c. 1385 James Butler, the 3rd Earl of Ormond built a new castle (KK020-060004-) at Gowran (Carrigan 1903, vol. 3, 400).
The precise location of this late 12th/early 13th-century castle is unknown, though it may have been on the site of the later 14th-century castle, which is also no longer visible above ground level.

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 24 March 2021

References

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

Nearby in the register

Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.

Sites and Monuments Record data: National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Record text is reproduced unchanged. National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland · CC BY 4.0
All Castle - motte in Kilkenny All County Kilkenny records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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