Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland
Castle - tower house
Knockrath Big, County Wicklow, Ireland
The record
- Townland
- Knockrath Big
- County
- Wicklow
- Country
- Ireland
- First-edition OS map
- Knockrath Castle (in ruins)
- Latest-edition OS map
- Knockrath Castle (in Ruins)
- Coordinates
- 52.97245, -6.28473
- SMR number
- WI023-036----
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.
David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford LibrariesDavid Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries
Shown on 4 historical map sheets, the earliest the 1799 "Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).
This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗
The National Monuments Service's description
Situated on a marked N-facing slope in pasture with commanding views over the Avonmore Valley. Price (1933, 240-41) described the foundations of a 17th-century O'Byrne castle (dims. 8.68m x 8.68m) with a circular tower at the NE corner standing on the eastern side of a large rectangular enclosure (WI023-036001-). No trace now remains apart from the earthworks which consist of two large conjoined terraced enclosures (W enclosure dims. 170m N-S; 63m E-W; E enclosure dims. 105m N-S; 67m E-W). The enclosures are linked by a well-defined causeway.
The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Wicklow' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.
Date of upload/revision: 17 December 2008
This monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 137/1940).
References
Price, L. 1933 The Byrnes country in Co. Wicklow in the sixteenth century. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 63, 224-42.
Nearby in the register
- Designed landscape - formal gardenunder 1 mi
- Water mill - vertical-wheeledunder 1 mi
- Megalithic structure1 mi
- Ringfort - rath1 mi
Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.