Ferns Castle

Situated on top of a low hill, but with wide views across north Co. Wexford. The castle was built on the site of a possible ringwork castle (WX015-003007-) in the early thirteenth century, probably in 1224-26 by William Marshall the younger who was in Ireland at the time as Justiciar, the principal government officer. The castle was captured by Irish forces in 1315-16, 1331 and in 1357-8 but it fell finally to the Kavanaghs in 1360, who held it for two centuries. They surrendered it to the royal authority in 1543, and in 1583 it was part of a grant to Sir Thomas Masterson. The Mastersons appear to have held the castle throughout the 1640's, but in 1649 they surrendered it to the Cromwellian general Coote. It has been virtually abandoned since then until it was conserved by the OPW. (Hore 1910)

Only the SW and NE walls of a large keep (int. dims. c. 27.5m NW-SE; c. 18.5m NE-SW) with two drum towers remain. It was excavated by P. D. Sweetman (1979) who recovered the rock-cut fosse (Wth of top 5m; D 3.5m) with an entrance causeway at the S side and evidence of the curtain wall, a possible second entrance and a possible outer fosse on the E side. The walls at SE and SW may have been built on an earthen bank of a ringwork castle (WX015-003007-). Further evidence of the fosse was found (03E1813) on the NW side (McLoughlin 2006a), but excavation c. 20m to the SE (01E1182) failed to produce any related material (Tierney 2003). The keep has 3 storeys, but is lacking a cross-wall. There are cross-loops on the ground floor but there are larger trefoil windows on the upper floors. The SE tower contains a chapel with a groin-vaulted roof at the first floor. The castle is a National monument. (Stalley 1971, 26, pl. II; Adams 1904, 177–81; Harbison 1970, 247–8; Bradley and King 1990, 52-3)

This is a National Monument in state guardianship: No. 521.