Originally connected to Keynsham Abbey, this substantial fortified site passed through numerous hands following the turbulent politics of medieval and early modern Ireland. The castle’s strategic importance is evident from historical records dating back to 1319, when Sybilla de la Chapelle claimed one-third of the property, though it was the Supple family who held it as tenants under the Earl of Desmond by 1569.

The castle itself was once an impressive defensive structure, described in Elizabethan surveys as a large square castle containing nine separate rooms, though already showing signs of decay by the 1580s. It stood within a formidable bawn, a fortified enclosure with strong defensive walls that protected not just the tower house but also gardens, orchards, and a water mill. The rapid succession of owners in the late sixteenth century reflects the upheaval of the Desmond Rebellions and their aftermath; the property changed hands from Supple to Billingsley before 1588, then to Robert Graves in 1590, Richard Whittaker in 1593, and finally to the Butler family by 1598, who deemed it “a sufficient residence” despite its deteriorating condition.

By the mid-seventeenth century, the Butlers had consolidated their hold on Kilmacow, with the Peppard family taking up residence in the early 1700s. Today, little remains of the once-grand castle; the tower has been nearly levelled, though local memory preserves tales of its fine mantelpieces that survived into living memory. A farmhouse now occupies part of the original site, built amongst the foundations of what was once one of Limerick’s notable fortified houses, a quiet reminder of the castle’s centuries as a contested prize in Ireland’s complex territorial history.