Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a gentle SE-facing slope. Land at Crooke was granted by Henry II to the Knights Templar before 1180, although the tower house is traditionally thought to have been built by the le Poers of Curraghmore (WA008-005001-) (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 329-30). When the order was suppressed c. 1308 Crooke was briefly held by the Knights Hospitallers of Killure (WA017-018001-). After the Suppression it was owned successively by William Wyse, Robert Woodford, Anthony Power, and jointly by Sir John King and Adam Loftus. The Aylward family acquired it shortly after 1615 and held it until the Cromwellian dispossessions when it was assigned to Duncannon fort, Co. Wexford. (Walton 1979a)
Only the SE corner with cut-stone quoins, a base-batter and three lights from a destroyed mural staircase survive. Described by O'Donovan c. 1840 (O'Flanagan 1929, 5-6) as comprising the S and W walls to a height of c. 8m with a rectangular ground plan (dims. c. 13.2m E-W; c. 9.5m N-S). There was a doorway in the E wall and mural stairs in the E and S walls rose to the first floor over a barrel vault which then partly survived (ibid.). Crooke church (WA018-023001-) is c. 70m to N and the surrounding fields have slight traces of old field banks over an area of c. 2ha. (Power 1890-91, 479-80)

Gwynn, A. and Hadcock, R. N. (1970) (reprint 1988) Medieval religious houses in Ireland. Irish Academic Press, Dublin.
O'Flanagan, M. (Compiler) (1929) Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Waterford collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1841. Typescript. Bray.
Power, Rev. P. (1890-91) The ancient ruined churches of Co. Warterford. JRSAI 20-21, 475-82.
Walton, J. (1979c) Aspects of Passage East. Part III. Decies, No. 12, 43-5.

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Waterford' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1999). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload/revision: 23 December 2008

This monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 22/1976).