Rathmore (), a village, civil parish and District electoral division in County Kildare, Ireland, is located at the western edge of the Wicklow Mountains in the barony of Naas North. The original settlement was at the southwest corner of the English Pale, serving an important function as a border fortress during the medieval period.
Geography Rathmore village is in the townlands of Rathmore East and West, 5 km northwest of Blessington. The civil parish of Rathmore is 7744 statute acres, containing the following townlands:
Townland Acreage Early record of placename or variant Athgarret 742 1481 - Agarret Blackhall 345 1518 - Blackhall Caureen 110 1783 - Coreen Hill 1816 -Cowreen HillJohn Taylor's 1816 Map of the Environs of Dublin. Phoenix Maps. Crosscoolharbour 110 1752 - Crosscoolharboar Eadestown 461 1518 - EdistonOtway Ruthven, 1961, 166. Furryhill 673 1541 - Firrehill Greenmount 122 1842 - Greenmount Hempstown Commons 238 Newtown 74 1481 - Neveton (?)Smyly, 1948, 43 1536 - Newtown Newtown Great 469 1614 - Newtown O'Moore 1654 - Newtown O'MoreSimington, Robert C. 1962. The Civil Survey AD 1654–56: Vol. VIII: County of Kildare. Irish Manuscripts Commission, Dublin. p. 44. Newtown Little 23 1541 - Little NewtonI rish Fiants of the Tudor Sovereigns, Henry VIII, No. 184. Newtownpark 270 Nunsland 87 1654 - NunstowneSimington, Robert C. 1962. The Civil Survey AD 1654–56: Vol. VIII: County of Kildare. Irish Manuscripts Commission, Dublin. p. 45. Philipstown 175 1518 - Philippiston Pipershall 176 Punchestown Little 121 1493 - PunchestownQuinn, David. B. 1941 'The Bills and Statutes of the Irish Parliaments of Henry VII and Henry VIII' in Analecta Hibernica, No. 10 (Jul., 1941), pp. 71-169, p. 88. Punchestown Upper 264 Rathmore East 377 1189 - Ráith Mór Nicholls, K. 1986, 'Medieval Leinster dynasties and families: Three Topographical Notes', in Peritia, Volume V, pp. 409-415, p. 413 Rathmore West 927 - Redbog 459 1654 - Red Mountaine Segravescastle 30 Slatesquarries 143 1783 - Slate QuarryAndrews J.H. 1983. A Map of the County of Kildare: Lieutenant Alexander Taylor of His Majesty's 81st Regiment 1783. Royal Irish Academy, Dublin. A comparison of Taylor's map with the First Edition Ordnance Survey would suggest the site is located at the northeast corner of Newtown townland, where a small stream crosses the road. http://maps.osi.ie/publicviewer/#V2,695277,718196,11,7 1816 - SlatequarriesJohn Taylor's Map of the Environs of Dublin extending 10 to 14 miles from the castle by actual survey on a scale of 2 inches to one mile. Walshestown 106 1518 - Walshiston Wolfestown 452Unknown 1627- Wolfenston Kearney, H.F. 1956. 'The Court of Wards and Liveries in Ireland, 1622-1641' in Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Section C, Vol. 57, (1955/1956), pp. 29-68, p. 47.
Rathmore borders with the parishes of Kilbride and Blessington in County Wicklow to northeast and southeast; the boundary extends along the N81 Road and the old coach road between Hempstown and Crosscoolharbour. To northwest, west and south it borders the Kildare parishes of Kilteel and Kill, Tipper and Tipperkevin.
History
Prehistory Cist burials of possible Bronze Age date were excavated within the motte in 1893-1894; the mound may contain an early Bronze Age tumulus.Record of Monuments and Places No. KD020-009009-: "Description: Discovered in the late-19th century during gravel extraction at Rathmore motte (KD020-009004-) and recorded by the Earl of Mayo (1896-98, 113-14). In 1893 several skeletons were found 'buried inside a ring of roundish undressed limestones' near the base of the bank of the motte. In 1894 a long stone cist, five feet long, eighteen inches wide and eighteen inches deep, was found 'exactly 20 feet' below the present grass-grown surface of the (motte); it contained a single inhumation. Antler, cattle, sheep and pig bones were found at the same level as the cist. (Bradley et al. 1986 vol. 4, 432)
Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy" A bronze bracelet was recovered near the motte in 1905. Newtownpark contains a ring-barrow of Bronze Age date, a Bronze Age cist burial was excavated in Hempstown Commons in 1950, and a cinerary urn burial of Late Bronze Age date was excavated in Athgarrett in 1983.Hartnett, P.J. 1950, 'A Crouched Burial at Hempstown Commons, Co. Kildare' in The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Vol. 80, No. 2 (Jul., 1950), pp. 193-198RMP KD025-007: "Description: In undulating pasture. Discovered in 1983 during topsoil-stripping for the construction of the Cork-Dublin natural gas pipeline. Most of a flat-based, bucket-shaped pot containing ‘tiny fragments of burnt bone’ was found standing upright in a pit of only very slightly larger volume and shape, which may originally have been sealed by a covering stone. While the paucity of the burnt bone led the excavator to caution against interpreting it as a cinerary urn, the form of the vessel suggests a Late Bronze Age date. (Cleary et al. 1987, 43).
Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy
Date of upload: 23 July 2012"RMP KD025-008: "Description: Prominently located (OD c. 296m) at the NE end of a narrow-topped, moderately steep-sided NE-SW ridge, overlooking Glen Ding valley to the NE and with panoramic views in all directions except SW. A sub-circular area (diam. 14.4m E-W; 13.4m N-S) is defined by a shallow fosse (D 0.2-0.4m: base Wth 0.8m at N – 3.5m at E) and by a low, heavily poached outer earthen bank (int. H 0.2-0.6m; Wth 2.5m at S – 4.1m at W; ext. H 0.3-0.5m) which has a spine of dense stony material, and possible small inner revetting stones at S (ext. diam. 29m E-W; 27.5m N-S). An entrance gap (Wth 3.3m) at ESE is flanked on its S side by a single revetting stone on the inner face of the bank. Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy Date of upload: 23 July 2012" Iron Age cremated remains were recovered within a pit-burial a short distance west of the motte in 1998.RMP No. KD020-009015
Early Medieval In the Early Medieval period Rathmore was a stronghold of the Meic Bráenáin, a branch of the Fothairt Airthir Life, within the territory of Uí Máel Ruba or Uí Maíleruba. Their principal church was Kilteel.Flanagan, Marie Therese 1998, 'Strategies of Lordship in Pre-Norman and Post-Norman Leinster' in Anglo-Norman Studies: Proceedings of the Battle Conference 1997 pp. 107-126, p. 123-124. The Book of Leinster records the killing of Donnchad mac Domnaill Remair, the Uí Ceinnselaig King of Leinster in 1089 at Ráith Mór in Uí Máel Ruba by the Uí Failghe King Conchobar Ua Conchobhair, illustrating Rathmore's importance as a high-status site. The description of Donnchad's death "in unfair advantage" suggests he was being hosted by Conchobar.O'Keeffe, Tadhg 1997, 'Diarmait Mac Murchada and Romanesque Leinster: Four Twelfth-Century Churches in Context' in The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Vol. 127 (1997), pp. 52-79 p. 52.
The use of Rathmore as an Anglo-Norman manorial caput also indicates the importance of the pre-Norman settlement; the motte may incorporate both a Bronze Age tumulus and the rath. Evidence for an earlier occupation layer under the motte was identified in 1894.
Medieval After the Norman invasion, Maurice FitzGerald was granted the cantred of Offelan or Ophelan with the manor of Rathmore. His son William FitzMaurice granted the manors of Rathmore and Maynooth to his brother Gerald FitzMaurice, 1st Lord of Offaly, ancestor of the Earls of Kildare.Orpen, Godard Henry 1914, 'The FitzGeralds, Barons of Offaly' in Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries, Sixth Series, Vol. 4, No. 2 (30 Jun. 1914), pp. 99-113 pp. 99-100. The grant mentions Rathmore and Omolrou; Kenneth Nicholls interprets this as a reference to Uí Maíleruba.Nicholls, K. 1986, 'Medieval Leinster dynasties and families: Three Topographical Notes', in Peritia, Volume V, pp. 409-415, p. 413. Maurice FitzGerald, 3rd Lord of Offaly, died at Rathmore in 1286.
In 1453-54 title to the manors of Rathmore and Maynooth were disputed between the Butlers of Ormond and the FitzGeralds. The Earl of Ormond was then Lord Lieutenant. A letter from the chief persons in Kildare to the Duke of York complained that the dispute: "hath caused more destructionne in the said counte of Kildare and liberte of Mith within short time now late passed and dayly doth, then was done by Irish enemys and English rebelles of long tyme before." The Butlers were later driven out.Wood, Herbert 1928 'Two Chief Governors of Ireland at the Same Time' in The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Sixth Series, Vol. 18, No. 2 (31 Dec. 1928), pp. 156-157.Curtis, Edmund 1932 'Richard, Duke of York, as Viceroy of Ireland. 1447-1460; With Unpublished Materials for His Relations with Native Chiefs' in The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Seventh Series, Vol. 2, No. 2 (31 Dec. 1932), pp. 158-186, pp. 176-177.
The manor was forfeited to the Crown after the revolt of Silken Thomas, 10th Earl of Kildare in 1534. In 1541 the "manor and castle of Rathemore" was leased to Walter Trott, Vicar of Rathmore. In 1545 the manor with the "castle and watermill there" and lands in Wicklow and Kildare were granted to John Travers of Monkstown, an usher of the King's chamber, for his services "especially in the wars in Ireland". The manor passed to the Chevers family by marriage at the end of the 16th century. The Civil Survey of 1654 lists John Chevers as holding 402 plantation acres in the parish with a manor house or castle and a mill, then waste.
Motte and bailey castle
The remains of a motte-and-bailey castle from the late 12th or 13th century are located in the village. Ten metres high, 46 metres in diameter at base and 17 metres at top, with an inner and outer fosse, the earthworks were badly damaged by gravel extraction for roadworks in the 19th century. An adjoining bailey to the north was destroyed before 1955.RMP No. KD020-009004: "Description: On an esker at the W-edge of Rathmore village, a former Anglo-Norman borough (KD020-009001-), c. 200m S of the Hartwell River, a small, W-flowing tributary of the River Liffey. According to Bradley et al. (1986 vol. 4, 428-30), while the first direct reference to a castle at Rathmore is not until the 16th century, there can be little doubt that the motte was erected in the late-12th/13th c. A substantial, steep-sided, grass-covered, conical mound (base diam. 46m N-S; summit diams. 17m E-W; 13m N-S; H. c. 15m above base of fosse) is girdled by an inner fosse (Wth 7.5m), a broad, high, outer bank (Wth. 12m at W - 18m at E; int. H 3m at W - 7m at E), and a second, very broad, outer fosse (Wth 17m at W; int D 6m) which has been overlain by a road to the E, a laneway to the S and is quarried away along the N. Long the object of gravel-extraction for road-making and repair (Mayo, the earl of, 1896-99, 113; Hendrick-Aylmer 1899-1902, 380-1) which also resulted in the discovery of burials (KD020-009009-) and an Early Historic bronze bracelet in its environs, the probable bailey immediately N of the motte was noted in 1955 (SMR file) as having been 'laid bare for sand to within a few yards of the motte.' The monument is protected by Preservation Order (No. 17/1956). Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy Date of upload: 10 June 2011 Date of last visit: 25 July 1986" The 'castle' recorded in the 16th century and depicted on the Down Survey was likely a later stone building.
Deserted medieval settlement