The MacGraths were based in the Slieve Gua area of County Waterford. They came from Co. Clare in the first half of the 15th century and rented lands at Mountain Castle from the Fitzgeralds of Knockmaun Castle. In the ruined chancel of the Augustinian abbey at Abbeyside is an arched recess housing the tomb of 'Donaldus Macrat', and the inscription states that he died in the 1470s.1 A Donal MacGrath was living in Mountain Castle in 1537, and in 1618 a later Donal of Mountain Castle arranged for his 'castle and other lands in Doungarvan' to be the jointure of his wife. 2 In 1628 his son Philip MacGrath built a fortified house at Sleady near Mountain Castle. Philip received a grant of his lands from the Commission for the Remedy of Defective Titles in 1637, and the patent included 'a castle and six tenements adjoining in the borough of Dungarvan, in the tenure of his mother Honor ny Cragh. 3

Early in 1642 the castle was garrisoned by the Irish, and it is mentioned in the Rev. Urban Vigors's account of the attack on Dungarvan by Sir William St Leger in March of that year. 4 Vigors states that St Leger ordered his troops to burn the houses in Abbeyside as well as in the town, and 'those that were in the castle on the other side of the Towne had quarter to depart only with their lives and wearing cloathes'. The Civil Survey of 1654 has the following details on the castle: 5

"The prmisses is bounded on the east with the heighway leadinge through the strand to Dungarvan; on the north with Hores-land; on the west with the heighway called stradne mrahir. There is on the prmisses a smale castle formerly called MacCragh's Castle wch is stronge and defensible and now possessed by Capn James Oldfield in pursuance of an order graunted by Lt. Collonel Francis Foulkes, then Gournor of Dungarvan, grounded upon direcons from Collonel Sankey, confirmeinge a lease made by Mrs Ellin Boyton Alias Mac Cragh of the premisses for 7 years onto the sd Captain Oldfield."

The castle stood on one acre and the proprietor was 'Philip McCragh, Irish papist, of Curragh nesledy, deceased'. He also had 83 acres of land nearby called MacCraghs Land of Burgery. The 'census' of 1659 6 gives James Oldfield as owner of the Abbeyside lands, and the Books of Survey and Distribution note that by the late 17th century the lands of Abbeyside, consisting of 407 acres, were divided between Matthew Hoare (45 acres), John Nugent (120 acres), and Sir Richard Osborne (242 acres). The Osborne portion included the castle.

By the mid-18th century the castle was still in a good state of preservation and retained its roof. Charles Smith writing in 1746 7 had little to say of it except in relation to the Augustinian Abbey: 'The persons who endowed it are said to have been the McGraths, by whom the adjacent castle, with some lands contiguous were given'. More important is the engraved plate of Dungarvan which Smith included in his book. The engraving depicts the south and east sides of Dungarvan sketched from Abbeyside. MacGrath's castle is also depicted, with its roof and two large chimneys on the east and west sides. The parapet remains but without its crenellations. We don't know if the castle was used as a residence at this period. John O'Donovan in his Ordnance Survey Letters of Co. Waterford (1841) 8 gives a more detailed description of the castle:

"It is a lofty square building measuring on the outside 38 feet from east to west and 31 feet 6 inches from north to south and its walls are well grouted and eight feet in thickness. It is six stories high and had two stone arches supporting two of its floors. The quoin stones are chiselled sand stones and all its windows are narrow and quadrangular and formed of chiselled sand stone. Its east side is destroyed to the ground, but the other sides are in good preservation and not less than 90 feet in height."

The following entry appears in the minute-book of Dungarvan U.D.C. for 1 May 1885:

"Ordered that the borough surveyor serve the necessary notice on the owners of the land at Abbeyside on which the old castle stands, to take down the portion of the wall at the top of the castle which is in danger of falling at any moment."

In 1907 Michael Beary the borough surveyor sent the following report to the Waterford and South-East of Ireland Archaeological Society journal: 9

"Mr E. O'Shea, a young classical student home on vacation, has discovered a date (12-18) cut on one of the quoins of north-east angle of the old Abbeyside Castle. I do not know that it has been quoted or referred to by any of the historians yet. I walked round it twice before I found it, although the scoring is fairly sunk and figures 2 1/2" high. They were covered with a grey film or lichen, and not easily seen. The figures have the appearance of 14th-century script."

Fortunately several photographs of the castle were taken early this century by local photographers such as Edmond Keohan and Richard Edward Brenan. Our top photo shows the collapsed east side with the two vaulted ceilings exposed. A newspaper photo shows the west and south walls; on the top floor can be seen a double ogee-headed window. To the right is a postcard view showing the north side and a section of the bawn wall (?) to the left. Another shows the south wall and Friar's Walk. A postcard view by Keohan shows the ruins after the collapse of January 1916, with only the south wall left standing.

In 1916 Edmond Keohan published a booklet on the castle. 10 The publication was prompted by the collapse of most of the castle on the night of 17-18 January 1916. He noted that 'the day before, Mr John McGrath, Acting Engineer to the Urban Council, reported that the castle was in a dangerous condition. On the following night, Mr M. F. Lynch, V.S., who lives close by, heard during the early part of the night a rumbling noise, and in the morning he saw the cause of the rumblings in the ruins of the fine old castle. Now all that stands is the south wall.' He adds that a coin dated 1133 was found in the ruins. 'The young lad that found it exchanged it for sweets and now it is not to be found. Many of the Abbeyside and even the Dungarvan people have carried home pieces of oakwood found in the debris, and these they will keep as souvenirs.

Keohan states that the east wall had largely collapsed about thirty years earlier. He has some further comments on the building: the front or east wall 'was connected with a portion of an ancient wall that now lies in a leaning position beside the roadway. The entrance to the castle lay by a doorway resembling a chimney, and situated some feet from the ground. A circular stairs led from the base to the top; the staircase has long since fallen away.' He also says that the castle was used for the celebration of notable events: 'Bonfires blazed on its summit to celebrate the victory of Frank Hugh O'Donnell over Henry Matthews. And again, when there were universal illuminations for the declaration of doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, the Abbeyside boys were not backward, for they had tar barrels blazing on the summit, a favourite feat of daring on such like occasions.'

Fragments of the walls remained up until the early 1960s, but unfortunately these were removed and now there are no remains visible above ground. Keohan's words were prophetic when he ended his booklet with the following comment: "It may not be long until it is wholly demolished and when it is gone, one of the most striking landmarks of the Harbour will have passed away."