A tradition prevails that the castles of Tullaroan Castles. and Courtstown were distinct structures, and the former having been destroyed in a hostile irruption of the Irish, the latter was erected on a different site. The ruins of this edifice evinced considerable grandeur, as well as great strength. They exhibited the spirit of a powerful chieftain, and the taste of a feudal age. Courtstown castle consisted of an outward ballium or envelope, having a round tower at each angle, and also at each side of an embattled entrance to the south, which was further defended "y a portcullis. Within this area or outward court, comprehending about an acre of ground, stood the body of the castle enclosing an inner court of an oblong form. The general figure of the building was polygonal. A massive quadrangular tower,

of earl Strongbow, by his marriage with Eva, the heiress of Dermod king of Leinster, he selected Kilkenny for the situation of a great castle and chief residence, which he began in 1172, but which the Irish destroyed the year following. The earl bimself dying in 1176, we find no further notice of a castle here till 1195, when William Marshall, who became earl of Pembroke and lord of Leinster, in right of his wife Isabel de Clare, earl Strongbow's only child, commenced a new structure on the site of the old, which, with the subsequent alterations attendant on time and fashion, is the present castle. By failure of heirs male in the Marshall family, the castle and Palatinate of Kilkenny passed by marriage with Isabel Marshall the 3d sister and co-heir of Anselm the last earl, to Gilbert de Clare, 6th earl of Clare, and also earl of Hertford and Gloucester. Gilbert, the Sth earl of Clare, &c. dying without issue in 1334, the castle and palatinate of Kilkenny came to bis 3d sister and co-heir Eleanor de Clare, the wife of Hugh le Spencer, who, in her right, became earl of Gloucester and lord of Kilkenny. Thomas le Spencer their grandson, lord of Glamorgan and Kilkenny, and restored afterwards to the earldom of Gloucester, sold the castle of Kilkenny in 1391 to James Butler, 3d earl of Ormonde, whose ancient residence was at Carrick castle, and from that period to the present time, the castle of Kilkenny has continged in the uninterrupted possession of his descendants.