Kilcrea Castle
Ruined 15th-century towerhouse and bawn near Cork City.
Just west of Cork City, near Kilcrea Friary, stand the ruins of Kilcrea Castle, a 15th-century towerhouse and bawn. Cormac Laidir MacCarthy, the 9th Lord of Muskerry, built both the castle and the friary.
Quick Facts
- Area
- County Cork, Ireland
- Architecture
- tower house and bawn
- Built for
- MacCarthys of Muskerry
- Built
- Mid-15th century
- Governing body
- On private land
Facts from the source article.
Did You Know?
- The castle stands in a copse that almost hides it, on the southern bank of the River Bride, a right-hand tributary of the River Lee.
- Kilcrea Friary lies nearby to the east on the same side of the river.
- The ruins are on privately owned land used as a cattle farm, unlike the friary which is maintained by the National Monuments Service of Ireland.
History and construction
Cormac Laidir MacCarthy completed the castle by 1465 on a marshy site that may have held a Bronze Age fort. The five-story main tower house occupies the western side, while the bawn extends eastward toward the friary. A three-story tower remains at the bawn's southeast corner. A mid-19th-century railway cutting was later driven through the castle's northern moat.
More in Ruined Castles in the Republic of Ireland
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