Tinnakill Castle

Tinnakill Castle (Irish: Tigh na Coille, lit. 'house of the wood'), also known as Tynekill, is a ruined medieval tower house in the parish of Coolbanagher, in the Barony of Portnahinch, County Laois in Ireland.

Tinnakill Castle

Some sources suggest that the four-storey tower house dates from the mid-15th century and was built by Eoin Carragh MacDonnell (known as "John the Scabbed"), on the site of an earlier castle.[1] Other sources date the structure to the 16th century, noting that it may have been owned by the O'Connor family before becoming a seat of the MacDonnells.[2][3] Associated with the McDonnell family for some time, the last McDonnell to hold Tinnakill was James McDonnell, from whom the site was seized following his role in the Irish Rebellion of 1641.[2] The tower house subsequently fell into disrepair, with some structural works undertaken to protect the ruin in the 19th century.[2]

A sheela na gig figure, removed in later centuries, was originally carved on a limestone window jamb on the building's second floor.[4]

Further reading
  • Erasmus Burrowes, Bart. (1854). "Tighearna Coille". Ulster Journal of Archaeology. II: 35.
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References
  1. Guth, Iain. "Tribe of Charles - aka The MacDonnells of Leinster". macdonnellofleinster.org. MacDonnell Of Leinster Association. Archived from the original on 17 May 2008.
  2. FitzGerald, L. Walter (1904). "The Macdonnells of Tinnakill Castle". Journal of the Kildare Archaeological and Historical Society. 4 (3): 205–215, 433. That the Castle of Tinnakill was not built by the Mac-Donnells is proved by a County Kildare Exchequer Inquisition (No. 11 of Edward VI) taken in Naas in 1551, which found that when Owen mac Morish O'Connor, of Tinnakill, rebelled in 1548, he was in possession of “one ancient ruinous Castle in Tinekille” ; and as his ancestors were seated there for centuries
  3. Sweetman, P. David; Alcock, Olive; Moran, Bernie, eds. (1995). Archaeological Inventory of County Laois. Dublin Stationery Office. LA008-001001- [..] Castle [..] Tinnakill (Portnahinch By.) [..] four-storey high tower house (max. dims 10m NE-SW, 11.80m NW-SE, wall T 2.35m) built of roughly coursed limestone. Punch-dressed limestone blocks with finely dressed margins used as quoins and in windows and doorway indicating a late sixteenth or early seventeenth century date [..] Sheela-na-gig (LA008-001002-) said to have come from here
  4. "Tinnakill Castle, Co. Laois". irelands-sheelanagigs.org. Retrieved 1 July 2020.

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