A tower house on the bridge
Sweetman’s Castle – known locally as Mullin’s Castle – stands right at the bridge over the River Nore in the middle of Thomastown, County Kilkenny, not out in the countryside as some listings suggest. It’s a four-storey tower house of around 1350, built where it could watch and control the river crossing. The archaeologist Ben Murtagh calls this kind of structure a ‘bridge castle’: its ground-floor chamber was entered from the riverside, and it was probably used as much for storing goods brought up the Nore by barge as for defence.
Set your expectations before you go. This is a roofless ruin in poor structural repair, the roof long since collapsed, and it’s not a managed visitor site – no car park, no facilities, nothing to go inside. What you get is the outside of a genuine medieval tower in a fine riverside setting, best seen from the bank.
A bit of history
The castle takes its name from the Sweetmans, who held it until the Cromwellian confiscations of the 1650s: William Sweetman forfeited the estate after backing the Confederate Catholics. Thomastown was a medieval trading town – Dundry stone shipped in from Bristol went into buildings across the area – and the tower is one of the more visible survivals of that period, standing where the trade route crossed the water.
Making a walk of it
On its own the castle is a five-minute stop, so it’s best folded into something longer. The Grennan Loop, a 7km circuit of about two hours from Thomastown, passes close by, with the castle a short detour reached over a five-arched bridge. A riverbank path with benches gives the easiest views of the tower and the Nore, and there are usually ducks and swans on the water.
Getting there and nearby
Thomastown is a small town on the River Nore, on the Dublin–Waterford railway line and served by Bus Éireann, roughly 15km south-east of Kilkenny city. There’s no parking at the castle itself, so leave the car in the town and walk down to the bridge.
Make a half-day of it with the area’s better-known sites. Jerpoint Abbey, a well-preserved 12th-century Cistercian ruin a couple of kilometres south-west, is the pick of them, with Kells Priory and the riverside village of Inistioge both a short drive away. Back in Thomastown, Unwind Coffee Co and the Blackberry Café are handy for afterwards.
The best light on the tower is early morning or late afternoon, low across the river – and since there’s nothing to pay and nothing to book, it’s an easy one to fit around Jerpoint.