Castle - ringwork, Castletown, Co. Kilkenny

Co. Kilkenny |

Castle Features

Castle – ringwork, Castletown, Co. Kilkenny

On a hilltop in Castletown, County Kilkenny, a medieval earthwork commands sweeping views across the surrounding countryside of rolling grassland and farmland.

This ringwork castle sits at the meeting point of three townlands, its strategic position offering visibility in all directions. The monument consists of a roughly circular raised platform, approximately 30 metres across and standing 2 to 2.5 metres high, which would have once supported timber buildings and defensive structures.

At the base of this earthen mound runs a wide, shallow ditch or fosse, measuring between 4 and 8 metres wide but only 30 to 40 centimetres deep today. This defensive feature is best preserved along the northern side of the monument. Just 70 metres to the south-southeast stand a medieval church and graveyard, suggesting this was once an important local centre of both secular and religious power.

Local historical sources add an intriguing layer to the site's story. The antiquarian William Carrigan, writing in 1905, recorded that the scholar Eugene O'Curry had referred to this earthwork as the 'Moat of Erke', though the meaning and origin of this name remain unclear. Today, the monument lies heavily overgrown with bushes and nettles, its ancient earthworks gradually being reclaimed by nature whilst still retaining their distinctive defensive form.

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Pete F
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