Kilcolman Castle

Kilcolman Castle lies in the townland of Kilcolman Middle, in County Cork, in Ireland.

Kilcolman Castle was presumably built by the 6th Earl of Desmond; James FitzGerald, sometime during the 1420s or '30s. It stayed a Desmond castle until it was confiscated after the Second Desmond Rebellion (1579–1583). For a short time afterward it was held by the Sidney family, before it was granted to the famous poet Edmund Spenser around 1586-87.

After Spenser had refurbished the castle, it became his main residence. It was here that he wrote his epic poem "The Faerie Queene". Allegedly, he was visited here by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1589. Legend has it that Raleigh and Spenser read their poetry to each other and shared tobacco pipes in the window-seat of the 2nd story of the castle, now called 'Raleigh’s window'. It is still visible in photograph nr. 5 in the gallery below, slowly disappearing under the ivy.

In 1598, during the Nine Years' War, Spenser fled his castle before it was sacked and burned by native Irish forces of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone. After the war ended in 1603 it reverted to the Spenser family. Edmund having died in 1599, his son Sylvanus then rebuilt Kilcolman Castle. In 1622, however, it was again destroyed, and afterward abandoned.

Kilcolman Castle originally consisted of a square tower house, standing in the corner of a bawn, adjoined by a great hall. It was built on a ridge overlooking the Kilcolman Bog. What remains today is the ruin of the tower house with, in its southeast corner, the garderobe tower. The ruin was extensively renovated in the 1850s, however.

At present the ruin of Kilcolman Castle is surrounded by outstretched and hilly meadows and next to the Kilcolman National Nature Reserve & Wildfowl Sanctuary. It can thus not be visited. Also, it can not be seen from the public road. The ruin itself can also not be accessed. A nice compact castle ruin.

Gallery