Castle, Slevoy, Co. Wexford

Co. Wexford |

Tower Houses

Castle, Slevoy, Co. Wexford

The castle at Slevoy stands as a weathered fragment of County Wexford's turbulent past, its rectangular tower base all that remains of what the Civil Survey of 1654-6 recorded as a castle and bawn with 180 acres, then owned by Alexander Rossiter.

The property changed hands during the Cromwellian period, passing to the Tottenhams, before Rev. H. Piggott, rector of Taghmon, acquired the lease in 1733. Piggott incorporated the medieval tower into a Georgian house, substantially altering its original character in the process.

Today, visitors can still trace the castle's defensive architecture through what survives. The tower base, measuring roughly 7 by 5.6 metres externally, rises to the second floor with distinctive granite quoins at its corners. A granite doorway on the northwest wall, once protected by a murder hole above, leads through a lobby into the ground floor chamber. Here, four embrasures pierce the walls, with only the southwest loop retaining its original double-splayed design. A mural staircase, now largely destroyed, winds through the southwest wall, connecting the floors; the first floor once rested on corbels, whilst the second floor above the vault preserves remnants of domestic comfort including a garderobe, fireplace, and a large window with granite surround.

The accompanying bawn, mentioned in the 1654-6 survey, has vanished entirely, though it likely occupied the rectangular area west of the tower where Piggott later built his house. This space, measuring approximately 40 by 30 metres, was subsequently filled with farm buildings, now either demolished or standing derelict. About 80 metres to the west-northwest lies a moated site, suggesting this corner of Wexford hosted multiple defensive structures throughout the medieval period, each telling their own story of power, property, and survival in Ireland's contested landscape.

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