Overview & History
In 1156 the High King Muirchertach Mac Lochlainn burned Grangefertagh’s round tower with the monastery’s lector, Eochaidh O’Cuim, still inside. The tower survived. It still stands 31.5 metres over the farmland north of Johnstown, visible for kilometres, and it is the main reason to stop.
St Ciarán of Saigir founded the monastery here in the 6th century – the early Irish name was Fearta-Cáerach, the sheep’s tomb – and it grew into a major church for the kingdom of Osraige. The Annals of the Four Masters record a Viking raid in 861. After the Normans arrived, the de Blancheville family installed Canons Regular of St Augustine in the early 13th century, and canon Thady Megirid rebuilt the complex in 1455. The church outlasted the 1541 dissolution, holding Protestant services until its roof gave way in 1780.
What to see
The round tower
The tower was a bell-house (cloigtheach) and a refuge. Look for the nine windows – four triangular-headed openings on the bell-floor, five varied ones down the shaft – and the doorway set 3.3 metres up the north-east face, once reached by a wooden ladder. A fragment of the original conical capstone survives on top, which few Irish round towers can claim.
The doorway you see today is a repair. Sometime before 1800 a local farmer prised stones out of the original opening, convinced they had magical fire-resistant properties – a folk memory, perhaps, of the tower that would not burn. Note that this is an unguided OPW site and the tower is external view only; you cannot go inside.
The church and handball alley
The 13th-century Augustinian church is limestone, running east–west, with its western nave collapsed. The surviving nave wall has a second life: it now serves as a Gaelic handball alley, so don’t be surprised to find a game in progress against 800-year-old masonry. A two-light ogee-headed window remains in the north wall, and a later north chapel – known locally as the Kilpatrick chapel – adjoins it.
The Mac Giolla Phádraig tomb
If you look at one thing up close, make it the double-effigy tomb in the north chapel. It shows John Mac Gilla Patrick and his son Brian, and it was carved by Rory Tunney, the same sculptor who worked at Jerpoint Abbey – the lierne vaulting, foliate quatrefoils and tracery are his signature. A Latin inscription records that Katherine Molloy, Brian’s mother, had it made. A grave slab nearby carries a raised four-armed trefoil-headed cross.
Practical Information
- Access & Hours: Open year-round during daylight hours. Free, no booking. This is an unguided National Monument in OPW care – there is no visitor centre and no staff on site.
- Facilities: None. No toilets, café or shelter. Bring water and rain gear.
- Safety: The ground is uneven and the tower is sealed at the base. Keep off the stonework. The site is protected under the National Monuments Acts 1930–2014.
- Getting There: Grangefertagh is just north of Johnstown, off the N8 corridor. There is no public transport to the site itself; the nearest rail is at Kilkenny city, roughly half an hour’s drive away. For the archaeology, the OPW’s Historic Environment Viewer maps the whole site.
Nearby Attractions
- Jerpoint Abbey – Cistercian ruin with the medieval carvings that made Rory Tunney’s name; the obvious pairing with Grangefertagh.
- Kells Priory – One of Ireland’s largest enclosed monastic sites, walled like a small town.
- Aghaviller – Another round tower and church ruin in the same corner of Kilkenny.
- Dunmore Cave – A limestone cave with a grim Viking-massacre history.
- Kilkenny Castle – The medieval fortress and grounds in the city.
Half an hour does the site justice: the tower, the tomb, and a slow look at the handball alley wall for the joins where medieval church becomes 20th-century ball court.