Irish Castles.

(The fair or assembly.)

This castle was built sometime after 1200 by Theobald Walter progenitor of the Butler family, it is considered to be perhaps the finest example of a medieval cylindrical keep in Ireland. It remained the power base of the Butler earls of Ormond until late in the fourteenth century, after which it changed hands several times, in 1690 Ginckel one of the Williamite generals took possession of it.