Castle, Moonhall, Co. Kilkenny
Perched midway down an east-facing slope in the marshlands of County Kilkenny, the ruins of Moonhall Castle tell a story of Ireland's turbulent past.
Castle, Moonhall, Co. Kilkenny
This rectangular fortification, measuring roughly 15.7 metres northeast to southwest and 8.5 metres northwest to southeast, appears on the Down Survey maps of 1655-6, when it stood in the townland of ‘Grangecoolepople’. Though the accompanying terrier document has been lost to time, preventing us from knowing who owned the castle in 1640, the structure clearly held enough significance to merit inclusion on both the barony map of Gowran and the parish map of Teiscoffin.
Today, visitors to the site will find little more than grass-covered wall footings and collapsed masonry, with walls that have slumped outwards over the centuries. The remnants that survive reveal randomly coursed limestone rubble construction, typical of defensive structures from this period. At the western angle of the main castle, the footings of an adjoining annex are still visible, measuring 2.6 and 3 metres along its northwest and northeast walls respectively. The walls, where they still stand, reach a maximum height of just 1.1 metres and span about 2 metres in width.
The castle wasn’t an isolated structure; it formed part of a larger settlement complex. Immediately to the east and south, earthworks mark the location of a deserted settlement, whilst approximately 110 metres southwest, on the eastern bank of a stream, lies the associated ‘Castle Well’. These features paint a picture of a once-thriving community that has long since returned to the landscape, leaving only these enigmatic ruins as testament to centuries of Irish history.