rathmacknee castle

A castle probably erected by John Rosseter who was made Seneschal of the Liberties of Wexford in 1451, and whose family remained Catholics although they recognised Henry VIII in the 16th century. The tower stands in the south-eastern corner of a well-preserved bawn. The tower is five storeys high, and has battlements which are typical of the 15th and 16th centuries in Ireland.

The bawn wall is about 4 feet thick and 24 feet high, with a round turret at the north-eastern corner and a less prominent square one at the north-western corner. It is almost complete, and gives a very good idea of what the tower-houses and bawns of the 15th and 16th centuries in Ireland looked like.