Pallas Castle, Graigue, Co. Tipperary
Pallas Castle once stood on a gentle rise in the rolling countryside of North Tipperary, with the Pallas river winding through the landscape to the west.
Pallas Castle, Graigue, Co. Tipperary
By the time of the Civil Survey in 1654 to 1656, the castle and its bawn were already described as ‘old ruined irrepayarable’, suggesting the fortification had fallen into decay well before the Cromwellian period. The property belonged to Daniell Kenedy in 1640, though little else is known about the castle’s earlier history or its occupants.
The Ordnance Survey Letters from 1840 provide our best glimpse of what remained of this lost stronghold. The surveyors found only fragments of the bawn wall still standing; a limestone structure bound with lime and sand mortar that rose to about 12 feet in height and measured just under four feet thick. These defensive walls would have originally enclosed a courtyard around the castle tower house, providing protection for livestock and storage during times of unrest. The survey team noted what appeared to be two thatched stables at one end of the remaining wall, with a stone chimney visible between them, possibly incorporated from the original medieval structure.
Today, even these modest remnants have vanished. A working farmyard and farmhouses now occupy the site where the castle and bawn once stood, leaving no visible traces above ground. The transformation from medieval fortress to modern farm reflects a common fate for many of Ireland’s smaller castles; their stones recycled into new buildings, their histories preserved only in old surveys and archaeological inventories. The site remains a testament to the layers of occupation and change that characterise the Irish landscape, where centuries of history lie buried beneath everyday rural life.





