Not far from Hacketstown, in the east of County Carlow, can be found the old castle of Clonmore. Of all the castles of County Carlow (and in the fifteenth century, there were at least one hundred and fifty) none has more impressive remains than that of the "Castrum de Clonmore". Dr. Leask comments that it is "much ruined, but still retains some windows of thirteenth century type, trefoil-pointed lights in pairs". It has stood where it now stands for a period of at least six hundred years - and yet there is remarkably little to show for it on history's pages. It is clear, however, that in the first half of the sixteenth century, and possibly for long before, this old castle belonged to, and was controlled by, the Fitzgeralds, Earls of Kildare.
