Foulksrath Castle

Foulksrath Castle (Irish: Caislean Ratha) is a 14th-centuryAnglo-Norman tower house located in Jenkinstown in County Kilkenny, Ireland.

The castle is closely associated with both the De Frene and Purcell families. The estate and original fortified and moated dwelling were first built in 1349 and occupied by the De Frene family and it is thought that the castle derives its name from Fulco De Frene (d. 1349) who was in the military service of Edward III and fought at the Battle of Crecy and the Siege of Calais. In the early 15th century the current castle was built by the Purcell family, relatives to the De Frene's, after the estate came into their possession.

The Purcells sided with the Royalists during the English Civil War and had their estate confiscated by Cromwell. The estate was divided between three officers in Cromwell's army. One of them, Bradshaw, received the castle, but allowed the Purcells to continue living on the land. There were several inhabitants of the castle following Bradshaw's death, including the Dawson family and Moses Henshaw. A family of peasant farmers named Purcell were still living in the castle grounds in 1777 when the castle and lands were let to Thomas Wright. William Ball Wright, noted genealogist and one of the first SPG Anglican missionaries to Japan, was born at the castle in 1843. The Wright family occupied the castle until 1861.

The Swift family (relatives of Jonathan Swift) have been associated with the castle since at least 1857. In that year, Godwin Meade Pratt Swift patented the first aircraft in Ireland. He called the device an "aerial chariot" and tested it by launching it from the top of Foulkrath Castle via a catapult with his butler as the pilot. The plane immediately nosedived to the ground. The butler survived, but with multiple broken bones. In a 1948 article in the Old Kilkenny Review, John Gibb wrote that the Swift family purchased the castle in 1898. However, in a 1979 article in the same publication, John Brennan suggests they may have been the castle's owners, if not its residents, for a considerable time before that.

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