Carrick-on-Suir is home to many wonderful sites and some beautiful scenery.

Ormond Castle and The Tudor Manor House.

This fine Tudor Manor House was built by "Black Tom" Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond in the 1560's. He was a cousin of Queen Elizabeth I, through her mother Anne Boleyn. It is remarkable, that though unfortified, the house has survived intact through the turbulent years of Irish history. It also contains a unique collection of decorated plasterwork and Royal Charters

  

Photograph by Tom Grace - http://www.tomgracephotography.com

The grace of the building is enhanced by the generous mullioned windows on both floors to the front and the elegant porchoriels in the centre front and at one side. The gallery on the first floor features two beautifully carved stone chimney pieces and a ceiling and frieze of Elizabethan plasterwork. The castle served as part of the house.

This castle of the Butlers - Earls and later Dukes of Ormonde - stands above the Suir on the east side of Carrick. It was acquired in 1315, though the oldest part of the castle is a mid-fifteenth-century walled bawn with a tower house in each of its northern corners. Sometime after 1565 the tenth, or "Black", Earl of Ormonde, who spent many years in the court of his cousin Queen Elizabeth I, added a Tudor manor house of a type common in England but like no other in Ireland. The low U-shaped range of this house forms three sides of a small court attached to the north of the old bawn, whose towers rise behind it. It has two storeys with a gabled attic, rows of mullioned windows with curved-headed lights, and steep brick gables with slender finials. There are few defensive features save for small firing-holes either side of the front door.
 

   Castle Armour                                Castle Hall

The house was a favourite haunt of the Great Duke of Ormonde, but afterwards it was deserted by the family, although they continued to own it until the present century. Fortunately, it was never allowed to fall into complete ruin and in 1947 was taken over by the State, who subsequently conserved the building. Their most notable achievement was the restoration of the long gallery on the first floor of the front elevation, whose ceiling had largely collapsed.

This delightful room, once hung with tapestries, has a magnificent limestone mantel bearing the date 1565, and stucco representations of Queen Elizabeth flanked by Equity and Justice. The Queen would have felt at home in this room and in the rest of this house, which was probably intended, for she is believed to have promised her favourite cousin "Black Tom" that she would one day honour Carrick with a visit.

Cost: Adults €2.50 - Senior Citizens €1.90 - Child/Student €1.20 - Family €6.30 - Group rate (20+) €1.90 per person.

Opening Times: Mid June-Sept. daily 9.30am to 6.30pm. Last admittance 45 mins before closing. Guided tour only.

Old Carrick Bridge.

The ancient bridge has linked Carrickmor and Carrickbeg since 1447. Built by Edmund MacRichard Butler, it had great strategic importance as the first bridge across the estuary. Over 100 people drowned when the barge in which they were travelling was swept against the structure by flood waters in 1799. A hanging took place from the bridge in 1811.

Photograph by Tom Grace - http://www.tomgracephotography.com

This seven arched bridge predates the voyage of Columbus to the New World. Originally built in c.1447 by Edmund MacRichard Butler it was for centuries the first bridge above the estuary and hence strategically important as a link between south Leinster and east Munster

      

Picture Courtesy of Tipp Web Ltd - http://www.tipp.ie

Town Churches

St. Nicholas' Church is the main Church in Carrick Mor.

St. Nicholas' Church, Carrick-on-Suir, County Tipperary was built in 1879 to replace an earlier church which dated back to 1804.  Renovations were carried out during the 1980s

   

St Nicholas' Photographs  by Kathryn McCarthy

   

The Comeragh Mountains

The Comeraghs are one of the finest ranges in the country and have a great mix of mountain features. There's the long and precipitous Knockanaffrin Ridge, the shadowy depths and glacial amphetheatre of Lough Coumshingaun, the magnificent plateau, the falls in Coum Mahon, the tremendous variety of the Nire Valley as well as the wealth of flora and fauna.Over the years the range has played host to numerous Mountain Pursuit Challenges as well as to the mountaineering section of the 1996 Melvin Trophy.

The Comeraghs in Winter - Knockinaffrin Ridge
 

Carrick Beg

Carrickbeg (little Carrick), on the south bank of the River Suir where two churches dating back to the 19th century can be seen on the steep hill ahead. The church on the left is St. Mollerans, which is the parish church of Carrickbeg. Fragments of the original 13th century friary are incorporated in the more modern structure. The boundary wall was built as a work-for-food profect during the terrrible famine of the 1840's. James, 1st Earl of Ormond gave the land to the Franciscans in 1336. They occupied the site until the suppression of the monasteries was ordered by Henry VIII. The friary, it's buildings and lands, were surrendered to the crown in 1540 and granted to the Earl of Ormond. A slight lull in Roman Catholic persecution occured in the 1640's and the friars returned for a brief 11 years. Then Cromwell imposed his will and priests were hunted and forced to emigrate or go undergound.

After Cromwell's death in 1658, priests returned and Carrickbeg Frairy was again occupied by the Franciscans in 1669. The Penal Laws proscribed the clergy, but a few friars held on at Carrickbeg.

They were, however, in dire circumstances, as a sketch of the friary in 1702 shows the abbey in ruin. With the advent of a more tolerant regime, the people of Carrickbeg built a new chapel in 1820, and this now stands, next to the friar, across the road from St. Mollerans.

Piltown

The InkBottle:

Belline was built in the late eighteenth century by Peter Walsh of Piltown and was bought by Frederick Ponsonby 3rd Earl of Bessborough (1758-1844) son of William , 2 nd Earl of Bessborough and his wife Caroline , daughter of William 3 rd Duke of Devonshire.

Bessborough married Henrietta daughter of John Spencer first Earl Spencer and was M.P. for Knaresborough (1780- 1793)

The House was subsequently occupied by successive agents of Bessborough. William Lamb is said to have inhabited the house during a period when he brought his wife Lady Caroline here to escape the affections of the poet Byron.

Sadly only one Gate House exists and is occupied by James Grace.

KilDalton College:

The History of Kildalton estate dates back to Norman times. The Anglo - Norman Dalton family fell victim to the Cromwellian Campaign of Confiscation and forfeited their lands to Ponsonby.

The house known as Bessborough House , designed by Francis Bindon, was first built in 1745. It was burnt down in 1923 and rebuilt in 1929.

The Datons came to Ireland during the Norman Conquests in 1171 and settled in Westmeath. Subsequently the Datons acquired extensive property in South Kilkenny. The name was later changed to the present name of "Dalton" .

Major John Ponsonby an officer of the Cromwellian forces was awarded extensive lands at Kildalton for his services to the Crown.

Daton's daughter Cathy sought the affections of Ponsonby. He however had other intentions. Cathy , realising that Ponsonby was married became insane and regularly dressed in the white clothes in which she intended to wed . Eventually she died and was found on her father's grave. Legend ha sit that her ghostly shadow may be seen at " Lady's Bridge"

Kilsheelan.

Kilsheelan was originally a river port and was established in 1185. It contains the ruin of a nave and chancel church and has been a winner of the National Tidy Towns Competition. To the north of the village is Slievenamon, a dominant landmark overlooking the Suir and Anner river valleys.

To the left of the bridge is a grotto. This is built on an old motte and bailey, which contained a Norman stronghold. Immediately across the river is Kilsheelan Wood, part of the beautiful wooded demesne of Gurteen le Poer, through which the East Munster Way Walking trial passes. The demesne was part of the estate of the le Poer family, who's baronial house (private) stands on the banks of the Suir, opposite the village of Kilsheelan. The present structure, which replaced an earlier house, was built in 1866 by Samuel Roberts for Edmond, 1st Count le Poer.