Rathvilly Castle

RATHVILLY CASTLE
The Castle of Rathviily is supposed to have stood in the field adjoining St.Patricks Church.Historians differ as to whom the builder was but most of them seem to agree it was DeLacy .It was destroyed by havoc of wars.
In 1641, the Castles of Rathviily,Tullow,Clonmore, were siezed by the Confederate Irish In 1650,the Castle was taken and dismantled by the parliamentariens under.Colonel Hawson.The Castle was eventually taken by the Cromwellians.
This Castle continued in a habitable condition up to 300 years ago.Local tradition names Nall Murray as the last person who resided here.It is stated that he was a Bachelor,that he kept race horses and that he used the land surrounding the Castle as a race course.
In the Dublin International Exhibition of 1903, one of the exhibits was the Baton of a Field Marshall of France who fought in Napoleons Wars. On the printed card attached to the exhibit it was stated that the Baton belonged to Field Marshall Clarke who was a great grand nephew to Nal Murray the last resident of Rathviily Castle.
There is now no trace of the Castle but local place names "Ballyoliver" and "Cromwell's Ford" seem to convey Cromwell's conquest of it.