No. 63259
Cahir Castle
Ireland
CastleRuin13th century
No. 14785
Castle 路 Ireland
Knockgraffon Motte and Bailey, New Inn
CastleRuinInstitutional
No. 14785 路 52.412 N, 7.933 W
Quick summary
Knockgraffon Motte and Bailey, New Inn is a castle in Ireland, listed as reference No. 14785.
Knockgraffon Motte and Bailey, New Inn is a castle in New Inn, Ireland with origins associated with the 13th century.
See all castles in IrelandKnockgraffon Motte and Bailey, New Inn, Ireland, was built by Anglo鈥慛orman forces.
Before the arrival of Anglo鈥慛orman troops the place now called Knockgraffon held an important Gaelic role. It served as the site where kings of Munster were inaugurated, a function it carried out prior to Cashel taking over that role. The hill was also the early main residence of the O鈥橲ullivan family.
In 1192 forces from Leinster moved into the area as part of a military campaign against the kingdom of Thomond, then ruled by Donal M贸r O鈥橞rien. In that year Normans seized control of the place from the O鈥橲ullivans and constructed a defensive earthwork with timber buildings on its summit to serve as a military base. The English king later granted the site first to William de Braose and subsequently to Philip of Worcester.
Throughout the 1200s the motte and its timbered stronghold functioned as an Anglo鈥慛orman fortification. A stone church and graveyard dated to the 13th century were established on the same site, reflecting a settled medieval presence. A separate fortified house built by the Butler family in the 1500s stands a few hundred metres from the earthwork.
The site remained in the hands of Norman or English proprietors for 806 years. In modern times the property passed from Donal Keating of Clonmel House to Gary Brian Sullivan of Statesboro, Georgia, who commemorated the return by giving his son, born in 1999, the name Donal O鈥橲ullivan Mor Connor. The motte is recognised today as a National Monument.
Condition
The central feature is a large, man鈥憁ade earth mound standing about twenty metres high, formed as an artificial hill with a flat summit where wooden defensive buildings once stood. This mound was created in the late 1100s when Anglo鈥慛orman forces reshaped the ground to provide a raised platform for timber fortifications, and the earthwork itself survives as the principal visible element of the site. The mound has not undergone archaeological excavation and it is officially protected as a National Monument.
Adjacent to the motte are the fragmentary remains of a medieval church and its burial ground, dated to the 13th century. The church survives as ruins set within an associated graveyard, indicating continued community and religious activity in the medieval period. The stone fabric and the grave markers remain in situ as visible traces of that phase.
A 16th鈥慶entury tower house built by the Butler family stands a short distance from the motte, a few hundred metres away, representing later fortified domestic architecture on the site鈥檚 wider landscape. The tower house is a separate standing structure linked to the property鈥檚 later occupation and defensive arrangements. Historical tradition records that the wider place was the inauguration hill for Munster鈥檚 kings before Cashel took over that function, a customary association attached to the location.
Location
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