Site of Castle, Brackagh, Co. Kildare
In the townland of Brackagh, County Kildare, a low knoll in what is now level pastureland once held a castle, though you'd be hard pressed to find any trace of it today.
Site of Castle, Brackagh, Co. Kildare
The first edition Ordnance Survey map from 1838 marks this spot as ‘Site of Castle’, indicating that even by the early 19th century, the structure had already vanished from the landscape. The map shows a dashed, subrectangular outline suggesting the castle’s footprint measured roughly 30 metres from northeast to southwest and about 10 metres across.
The location sits in quiet countryside, with an old, disused burial ground lying about 80 metres to the northeast. While nothing remains visible above ground, the site’s inclusion on those early Ordnance Survey maps preserves its place in the historical record. These meticulous Victorian cartographers documented countless such ghost sites across Ireland; places where castles, churches, and settlements once stood but had already faded into memory by the time the surveyors arrived with their theodolites and chains.
Without excavation, it’s impossible to know what type of fortification once stood here or when it was built. The castle could have been anything from a medieval tower house to a later fortified dwelling, one of hundreds that dotted the Irish countryside during centuries of territorial disputes and local power struggles. Today, the knoll gives no hint of its former importance, blending seamlessly into the surrounding farmland where cattle likely graze over whatever foundations remain buried beneath the soil.