Kindlestown Castle

Harbour View Neil Dorgan via Compfight

Kindlestown Castle was built by Norman nobleman,

Walter de Bendeville sometime around 1225.

In 1377 the wild O’Byrnes captured the castle.

It was taken back by the Normans

and in 1402 the O’Byrnes tried to capture the castle again but were defeated.

The castle gets its name from Albert de Kendley who owned both this castle

and Rathdown castle for a short amount of time.

There is more information about Kindlestown Castle HERE on Greystones Guide.

 

Please supervise children when they are researching online!

Rathdown – Evidence in the Landscape (cropmarks)

An aerial survey by Cambridge University

in July 1970 found cropmarks that showed Rathdown

was a medieval village or town

with signs of a castle, church and houses.

 

You can see the original photos HERE.

 

Can you work out where the village and castle

may have been from the markings on the ground?

 

What are crop marks?

When places where people once lived are deserted,

they become overgrown.

RuinsCreative Commons License Mark Coleman via Compfight

Eventually they are buried.

What is underneath the soil can affect

how the crops above them grow.

Ditches dug into the ground fill up

with soil over time. Crops grow well in these place.

They grow higher and look greener.

These create ‘positive’ cropmarks.

 

Where there are walls, floors or foundations underneath,

there is a thinner layer of soil.

Crops don’t grow as well on top of this rubble.

This creates ‘negative’ cropmarks.

Positive and negative cropmarks can be seen best from the air.

RHB_UK_Harnhill-1672_LabelledCreative Commons License DART Project via Compfight

Click on this LINK to read more about cropmarks.

Click HERE for a very detailed excavation

at Rathdown dating from 1997.

Food Long Age – from the Stone Age to Post War

Click HERE for a Historical Cookbook

from the CookIt website.

For example you can see what the Vikings,

the Victorians and our GREAT grandparents liked to eat.

Click HERE and you can design a menu for a Viking

or a family during World War 2 who were living on rations.

Waste Not - Want Not Prepare for Winter : Canada Food Board sensitive campaign / « Waste Not - Want Not - Prepare for Winter » : Campagne de sensibilisation de la Commission canadienne du RavitaillementCreative Commons License BiblioArchives / LibraryArchives via Compfight

 

 

The Middle Ages – The Village at Rathdown

Knaresborough Castle DoorCreative Commons License Stephen Bowler via Compfight

The village at Rathdown did well from 1308 under the Normans:

the Le Brun and then the FitzGerald families.

In 1534, a castle,

20 houses,

a watermill

and a fresh water spring were recorded at Rathdown.

In the early 1990s, Dr. Leo Swan reported that photographs taken from the air showed signs that there was once a large village there.

In the Middle Ages there were about five hundred people living at Rathdown, and further south at Greystones was deserted.