Gragara Castle

On a slight S-facing slope at the edge of the Nore river valley, in rolling grassland. There are good views in all directions, except upslope to N. In a field called 'Castle Meadows'. On the Down Survey (1655-6) Parish map of Mayne, there is a castle called 'Gragicaw' drawn in the northern portion of Gragara which in the mid-17th century was called 'Jinkinstowne' and after the placename is written, 'Countess of Ormond Protestant'. The accompanying terrier records, ‘a Castle at Jenkinstowne’, with the proprietor listed as the ‘Earle of Ormond Ir[ish] Pa[pist]’.

Identified during ASI fieldwork (4 August 1987) as a roughly square area (max. dims. 55m by 54m) bounded by a bank (Wth c. 3m; ext. H c. 0.6m) with rounded corners and an external fosse on the E and S sides. There is an entrance to S. The interior is divided into a series of rectangular platforms delimited by banks (Wth 1.5-2m; H c. 0.3m) at SE and SW with a flat area at N. There are other earthworks (KK010-116001-) 80m to the SE, which appear to be connected by a trackway. No masonry structure survives above ground level.