Castle, Rathcoun, Co. Tipperary South
Nestled on the eastern side of an ancient enclosure in Rathcoun, County Tipperary South, lie the crumbling remains of what local tradition claims to be a medieval castle.
Castle, Rathcoun, Co. Tipperary South
These poorly preserved ruins consist of a rectangular area measuring roughly 9.2 metres from north-northwest to south-southeast and 6 metres from west-northwest to east-southeast. The structure has been cleverly built into the natural slope of the land, with walls cut directly into the upslope on the western and northern sides, creating a level interior space.
The surviving walls tell a story of centuries of decay and collapse. The western wall, though moss-covered and weathered, still shows traces of its original construction with stones visible at the top and inner face, whilst the northern wall remains poorly defined. To the northeast, only intermittent sections of low, collapsed walling remain, covered in earth and moss. A particularly dramatic feature is a massive block of masonry, measuring 1.15 metres thick, 1.8 metres high, and 2.5 metres long, which appears to have tumbled from the southwest corner and now rests partially on the western wall, encroaching into what would have been the interior space.
Historical records from the Ordnance Survey Letters of 1930 describe these remains as a “fragment of a wall said to be part of a castle”, whilst later research by Cahill in 1982 presumed these masonry remains to indeed be those of the castle mentioned in local lore. Though time and weather have taken their toll, leaving scattered loose stones within the interior and a sod-covered mound at the southeast corner, these ruins continue to hint at the defensive structures that once stood guard over this corner of Tipperary.





