Foulksrath Castle
| Foulksrath Castle | ||
|---|---|---|
 Foulksrath Castle |
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| Alternative name (s): | Caisleán Rátha | |
| Creation time : | Mid 14th century | |
| Castle type : | Niederungsburg (Tower House) | |
| Conservation status: | restored | |
| Standing position : | Irish nobility | |
| Construction: | Quarry stone | |
| Place: | Jenkinstown | |
| Geographical location | 52 ° 44 '58.6 " N , 7 ° 18' 57.5" W | |
| Height: | 71 m ASLTemplate: height / unknown reference | |
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Foulksrath Castle ( Irish Caisleán Rátha ) is a tower house in Jenkinstown in County Kilkenny, Ireland . The Anglo-Norman building dates from the 14th century.
history
The castle is closely linked to the De Frene and Purcell families . The site was first built on in 1349 with a fortified building surrounded by a moat . The De Frene family lives there and it is believed that the castle is derived from the name of Fulco de Frene († 1349), who was in the military service of the English King Edward III. stood, fought in the battle of Crécy and took part in the siege of Calais . At the beginning of the 15th century, the Purcell family, relatives of the De Frenes, had the current castle built after they took possession of the property.
The Purcells sided with the royalists in the English Civil War and their lands were confiscated by Cromwell . The property was divided among three officers from Cromwell's army. One of them, Bradshaw , received the castle but allowed the Purcells to continue living on their land. After Bradshaw's death, different people lived in succession in the castle; B. the Dawson family and Moses Henshaw . A farming family named Purcell was still living on the property in 1777 when the castle and lands were leased to Thomas Wright . William Ball Wright , a noted genealogist and one of the first United Society missionaries of the Anglican Church in Japan , was born in 1843 at the castle. The Wright family lived at the castle until 1861.
The Swift family (relatives of Jonathan Swift ) have been associated with Foulksrath Castle since 1857 at the latest. That year Godwin Meade Pratt Swift patented the first airplane in Ireland. He called the device “Aerial Charriot” (dt .: Car of the Skies) and tried it out by launching it with his butler as a pilot from a catapult at the top of the castle. The plane immediately crashed nose down. The butler survived but broke several bones. In 1948, in an article for the Old Kilkenny Review , John Gibb wrote that the Swift family bought the castle in 1898. But in 1979, in an article in the same magazine, John Brennan wrote that the Swifts had owned, if not lived, the castle long before that.
In 1910 the castle was leased to Colonel Butler and his sister. After Miss Butler's death , Foulksrath Castle stood empty and fell into disrepair. In 1946, An Óige (the Irish Youth Hostel Association) bought the castle from the Swift family with support from the community. The purchase price and the cost of the conversion into a youth hostel were raised through a public appeal for donations. The castle was managed by Ernest J. Macken , a well-known artist and painter. He exhibited his oil paintings and the works of local artists in a gallery. When Jack left Macken in 2009 it was closed. Foulksrath Castle is now privately owned.
description
The well-preserved and restored Tower House is about 12 km outside the medieval city of Kilkenny . Most of the outer wall of the enclosure and some of the wall remains connected to it have been preserved next to the main tower. A sloping roof was placed in the center of the tower, but the open walkway along the tower's battlements has been preserved and is still accessible today. A narrow spiral staircase connects the four floors. The remains of a ditch can be seen along the outer walls. It is thought that the moat dates from the times of the first fortification in the middle of the 14th century. Presumably this first building was integrated into today's Tower House.
Ghosts
Various stories have circulated about the haunted castle at this castle and in 1992 a television crew of ghost hunters visited Foulksrath Castle at the BBC .
The first story is about a female ghost who is supposed to look out of a window in the castle; she is said to have been the daughter of a previous owner who locked her in the tower because he did not agree with the choice of her lover. There she is said to have either starved to death or killed by her father, depending on the version of the story.
The second ghost apparently appears every year on November 29th and is said to be a security guard who fell asleep on his watch and was thrown to his death from the ramparts as punishment. You can hear his footsteps as he walks around the castle to correct his inattentiveness.
The third story is about another female ghost, this time a woman, who wanders around the castle with the scent of wildflowers or lilacs .
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Minister to reopen Foulksrath Castle in The Irish Times , October 20, 1962. p. 13.
- ↑ a b c d e John S. Gibb: Foulksrath Castle and the families connected with it in Old Kilkenny Review . Kilkenny Archaeological Society, 1948. pp. 47-54.
- ^ A b John Brennan: Foulksrath and its associations in Old Kilkenny Review . Kilkenny Archaeological Society, 1979. pp. 50-60.
- ^ Rev. WB Wright of Tokyo . In: The Library of Nineteenth-Century Photography . Retrieved February 8, 2019.
- ^ William Ball Wright: On Foulksrath Castle and Logmore, their Founders and Possessors . In: The Journal of the Royal Historical and Archeological Association of Ireland . Pp. 432-439. 1887. Retrieved February 8, 2019.
- ^ Swift's Health . In: Kilkenny People . June 20, 2012. Retrieved February 8, 2019.
- ↑ John Excell: Curiosities from 150 Years of The Engineer archives in The Engineer , 5th September, 2006.
- ↑ a b c Alanna Gallagher: Meet the ghostbusters . In: The Irish Times . October 25, 2012. Retrieved February 8, 2019.
- ^ John Buhler: The Haunting of Foulksrath Castle . In: The Voice Magazine . February 1, 2013. Retrieved February 8, 2019.
- ^ County Kilkenny - Paranormal Database Records . In: Paranormal Database . Retrieved February 8, 2019.
