Castle - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

The precise location of a castle in the townland of Knocksouna has not been identified. Westropp (1906-7, 173) recorded the following details about Knocksouna; 'The hill of Cnoc Samhna was the legendary scene of a battle of the High King Cormac mac Airt, in A.D. 241. ''Eochy the red hand," King of Ulster, camped there in the time of St. Fionnchu of Brigown. The place is of little other note. 1583 T. Lacy held Cnocsawny (Fi. 2784). 1655 J. Gould held Knockesawny, with the stump of a C. [astle] (C.S., xxiv., p. 286), granted to C. Ormsby (Act Sett.). It is perhaps Tankardstown C[astle].'
The 1659 Civil Survey of Limerick recorded that in 1640 John Gould of Knocksownye an Irish Papist was the owner in Knocksouna of 'a stump of a Castle three houses & an orchard' (Simington 1938, 121). No castle is depicted in the townland of Knocksouna on the Down Survey map of Coshma Barony (Hib. Reg.). On this map Tankardstown Castle is shown standing to the N of Knocksouna townland. The terrier of the Down Survey map of Tankardstown parish recorded that in Knocksouna there was 'a Ruined Castle' (NLI, Ms 718).

See attached Down Survey map of Coshma Barony.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 23 August 2021

References

Hibernia Regnum: A set of 214 barony maps of Ireland dating to the period AD 1655-59. The original parish maps have been lost but the Hibernia Regnum maps are preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris (Goblet 1932, v-x). Photographic facsimiles of these maps were published by the Ordnance Survey, Southampton in 1908.

NLI, MS 718 - National Library of Ireland, Parish maps with terriers, showing forfeited lands in County Limerick, commonly known as the "Down Survey", executed under the direction of Sir William Petty, 1657, and copied by Daniel O'Brien, 1786.

Westropp, T.J. 1906-7 The ancient castles of the county of Limerick. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 26, 54-264.