Crooke's Castle, Aghavrin

About

Crooke's Castle is an ornamental tower or folly in Aghavrin townland, 4.8 km (3.0 mi) north-west of Coachford village, County Cork, Ireland. It was built in the early 19th century by Thomas Epinetus Crooke of nearby Aghavrin House, who served during the Napoleonic Wars, mainly on board HMS Shamrock, a Royal Navy blockade ship. It is included on the Record of Protected Structures maintained by Cork County Council.

The structure is referred to as a 'tower' located on Carrigaknubber Rock as per the 1842 surveyed OS map and named as 'Aghavrin Castle' in both the Ordnance Survey (OS) name book (c. 1840) and the 1901 surveyed OS map. The OS name book describes it as in the southern part of Aghavrin about 4 chains (0.08 km; 0.05 mi) north-east of the boundary with Rockgrove (townland).

Locally, it is nowadays referred to as 'Crooke's Castle'. Early Irish ordnance survey maps indicate structures named 'tower' often located in or around a country-house demesne. These were mostly built in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries, and sited in prominent positions to act as 'eye-catchers', and to afford good views from the tower itself.

Many were used for tea parties, when tea drinking...