Ireland · Ruin
Kilcash Castle
Caisleán Cill Chaise
Kilcash Castle is a ruined Irish tower house and adjoining domestic range standing in a pasture in County Tipperary. The surviving tall rectangular tower and the long ruined east range form the visible core of the site. Today the tower stands roofless and weathered amid low boundary walls and fields.
Its prime
1600
Today
Ruin
As it stood in 1600
What Kilcash Castle looked like in its prime.
A tall, rectangular stone tower house of roughly four storeys dominates the composition, its façade punctured by small, irregular square and rectangular windows and vertical slit openings. To the tower's right a long, lower stone domestic range runs east with three large, evenly spaced rectangular window openings. The masonry is pale grey-weathered limestone with ivy in places; a low dry-stone boundary wall and grassy field sit in front, with rolling countryside beyond under a broad sky.
Its story
The story of Kilcash Castle.
Kilcash Castle, a tower house with an adjoining domestic range near the village of Kilcash in County Tipperary, stands on a manor taken from the Wall family and given to the Butlers of Ormond. In 1614 Walter, 11th Earl of Ormond, who lived at Kilcash, inherited the Ormond title from his uncle Thomas, the 10th Earl, and passed the manor to his grandson Colonel Richard Butler of Kilcash.
During the wars of 1641–52 the 3rd Earl of Castlehaven, a noted Confederate Catholic commander, frequently stayed at Kilcash, where his sister Lady Frances was married to Richard Butler, himself a Confederate commander; Castlehaven wrote his memoirs there. In the graveyard a Butler mausoleum nearly as large as the church holds, among others, Christopher Butler, Catholic Archbishop of Cashel (1673–1757), and Walter and John Butler, 16th and 17th Earls of Ormonde.
The castle fell into ruin in the 19th century after parts of the Kilcash estate were sold; the estate's lamented woods went in 1797 and 1801. In 1997 the Butlers sold the castle to the Irish State for £500, and it is now in state care.
Step inside
6 places to explore in 1600.
The record describes 6 distinct spots at Kilcash Castle, including 1 interior: ground-floor room of the east range looking out. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
Build Your Own Castle
Recreate Kilcash Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1600, a photoreal reconstruction that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
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Clans who held Kilcash Castle.
The families that held Kilcash Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Wall
The manor of Kilcash was held by the Wall family before passing to the Butlers of Ormond.
Held by the Butlers of Ormond from the early 17th century until sold to the Irish State in 1997.
