TreeAlive
‹ Sites and Monuments Record, Ireland

Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

House - 16th/17th century

Rathculbin, County Kilkenny, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of House - 16th/17th century, Rathculbin, 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
Rathculbin
County
Kilkenny
Country
Ireland
First-edition OS map
Castle (in ruins)
Latest-edition OS map
Castle (in Ruins)
Coordinates
52.53934, -7.32224
SMR number
KK027-025----

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)
  • 1882 · Ireland (southern half). (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Get directions ↗

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

The National Monuments Service's description

On the summit of a low hill with good views to the N and W. The Down Survey (1655-6) barony map of Kells, Co. Kilkenny, depicts a substantial castle in 'Rathculbyne' with an adjacent gabled house with a chimney at one end (Hibernia Regnum, courtesy of Trinity College Dublin). It is shown on the 1st (1839) ed. OS 6-inch map and the 1948 revision as, 'Castle (in ruins)' and the 25-inch OS map indicates the N gable. Only the N gable (wall T 0.83m; surviving L 5.5m - E end is missing) and a short length of the W wall (L 1.55m) at the NW angle survives of a rectangular three-storey house, composed of roughly coursed limestone rubble. It has a externally projecting chimney (Wth 3.4m; D 0.35m) roughly centrally placed in the gable, which is heavily ivy clad both internally and externally.
Internally at first-floor level there are the remains of a small fireplace flanked to the E by a rectangular wall-cupboard. At second-floor features there are two poorly preserved windows (now collapsed) one on either side of the chimney breast and the fragmentary remains of a fireplace.
According to local information the greater part of the E side of the house had collapsed in 1954 and the rubble subsequently removed. Also there had been a small archway adjoining the E side of the N gable and the area around the house was formerly cobbled (local information).
The depiction on the Down Survey map would suggest that there is also a castle at this location which is no longer visible at ground level.

See attached:
KK027-025----_01 Extract from the Down Survey (1655-6) barony map of Kells, Co. Kilkenny (Hibernia Regnum, courtesy of Trinity College Dublin)
KK027-025----_02 N gable - exterior
KK027-025----_03 N gable - interior
KK027-025----_04 N gable - interior - location within yard

Compiled by: Jean Farrelly

Date of upload: 28 March 2023

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 House - 16th/17th century in Kilkenny All County Kilkenny records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
See your own family's places on a living map