Documenting our Heritage

Rathcoffey,

Kildare.

Page 2

Exploring through the ground level of Rathcoffey house - there’s unfortunately no way to access the levels above.

Much of the ground level has the feel of a basement - complete with vaulted ceilings.

In this section of the house we start to identify different phases of the structure’s construction.

Here we can see areas of the original wall which at some point was plastered over and given the appearance of cut stone. Finally the curved wall was added and the wall again re-plastered but without the cut stone effect.

A Loop, part of the original Rathcoffey castle and probably used to fire arrows out on invaders. It can now be found inside the house structure at the back of a fireplace.

Maybe this loop was used to fire out arrows on the invading Government forces in 1642?

Many years later numerous human bones were found in the area - the Government forces are said to have massacred the civilian inhabitants of the castle and hidden the bodies.
The garrison of the castle were taken to Dublin and executed.

Nicholas Wogan however escaped capture.