Kilcurl Castle, Kilkenny

Kilcurl

Tower House

The tower house at Kilcurl is typical of the fortified houses built around the 15th/16th century. It is quite difficult to find information about the history of the castle, other than it may have been built for the Purcell family, who were very prominent around Tipperary and Kilkenny during this period and it was forfeited to Cromwell in the 1640s. A number of defensive features that allow this tower house to be classed as a castle are present at Kilcurl, these include a machicolation high above the south doorway, a murder hole, and a large number of arrow loops. A garderobe can be seen in the image below jutting out from the west wall.

Kilcurl Tower House The tower house at Kilcurl is typical of the fortified houses built around the 15th/16th century. It is quite difficult to find information about the history of the castle, other than it may have been built for the Purcell family, who were very prominent around Tipperary and Kilkenny during this period and it was forfeited to Cromwell in the 1640s. A number of defensive features that allow this tower house to be classed as a castle are present at Kilcurl, these include a machicolation high above the south doorway, a murder hole, and a large number of arrow loops. A garderobe can be seen in the image below jutting out from the west wall.
North-west corner	Arrow loop
Garderobe to the left and machicolation to the right.
Situated: On Private farmland about three kilometres south of Knocktopher in County Kilkenny. Discovery Map 67: S 52870 35059. Last visit Feb 2019. Longitude: 7° 13' 21.9" W. Latitude: 52° 27' 53.0" N. Google Map Photos: Jim Dempsey.
Ref: Sherlock, Rory. “The Evolution of the Irish Tower-House as a Domestic Space.” Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. Section C: Archaeology, Celtic Studies, History, Linguistics, Literature, vol. 111C, 2011, pp. 115–40. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41472817.