Ballyragget Castle, , County Kilkenny
Photo © Mike Searle, 8 June 2009
Ballyragget Castle, , County Kilkenny
Photo © Mike Searle, 8
June 2009
Built in 1495 by the Mountgarret family, Ballyragget Castle was garrisoned
in 1600 by Sir George Carew against the sons of the owner Lord Mountgarret,
who were in rebellion against the crown. It had at one time also been a favourite
residence of the celebrated Lady Margaret Fitzgerald, Countess of Ormonde.
BALLYRAGGET CASTLE
Balyragget, distant nine miles and a half from the city of Kilkenny, towards
the north-west, is a small post and fair town. King James I. in the year 1619,
constituted this place a manor, with a grant of two annual fairs, in favour
of Richard third Viscount Mountgarrett, the proprietor of the estate. In the
year 160O, at which time the sons of the Viscount were in rebellion against
the crown, and concerned with O'More in the scheme to arrest the Earl of Ormonde,
and those English generals who accompanied his lordship, Sir George Carew, (afterwards
Earl of Totness,) governor of Munster, placed a strong garrison in Lord Mountgarrett's
castle of Balyragget. This castle was converted, some years back, into a barrack,
for the use of the military stationed here to repress the frequent insurrections
of the plebeian faction called "White-boys." It was once a favourite
residence of the celebrated Lady Margaret Fitz Gerald, commonly styled "Mornia
Gheroda," Countess of Ormonde, mother to the first Viscount. From this
place, indulging in the lawless habits too common at the age in which she flourished,
Lady Margaret is said to have frequently issued, at the head of her armed retainers,
and committed ravages on the cattle, and other possessions, of many of the neighbouring
families who were not so fortunate as to be deemed her friends.
In the immediate vicinity of the above town is the noble seat of the "Butlers of Balyragget" which branch of the house of Monntgarrett has lately ceased in the male line, in the persons of the late Dr. James Butler, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cashell, find George Butler, Esq. his brother. This estate and residence are now the property of Thomas Kavanagh, Esq. of Borris, in the county of Carlow, who acquired the property by descent from the Butler family.
THE BEAUTIES OF IRELAND BY JAMES NORRIS BREWER, 1825