Keatingstown Castle

On a pronounced bluff between the steeply sloping S side of the Nore river valley and the broad plateau to the S, in grassland. A stream runs along the SE boundary flowing c. 900m to the NE to meet the Nore. The ‘castle’ is located in the NE quadrant of a large, roughly rectangular graveyard (KK014-056002-). There are extensive views in all directions. The OS Letters (1839) describe, ‘a large burying ground, and a bit of the wall of a Church in the Townland of Druim Deilgneach, i.e., the Thorny Ridge or Hillock. Part of a castle wall joins this ruin at the east end and portion of a court or yard wall remain on the south side’ (O’Flanagan (ed.) 1930, vol. 2, 77-8 (25-6)). On the 1st (1839) ed. OS 6-inch map a church (KK014-056001-) is indicated as a rectangular structure orientated NW-SE with another building (L c. 8m; Wth c. 5m), annotated ‘Castle (in ruins)’ adjoining at the NE quadrant. On the 1946-7 revision the church is orientated N-S, with the NE building, again annotated as ‘Castle (in Ruins)’ is at a slight remove from the church. Carrigan (1905, vol. 3, 195) when describing the church mentions that, ‘Attached to it, at its north-east angle, was a castle, a fragment of a wall of which about 5 ft. [1.5m] thick, yet stands’ (ibid.). It is highly likely that the ‘castle’ is in fact a residential tower for the priest, a presbytery.