Extract from “Houses of Cork, Volume I, North” by Anna-Maria Hajba
The original castle was a stronghold of the Fitzgeralds. According to local tradition the monks of Castlelyons were sheltered within its walls during their flight from the Cromwellians and remains of a font and a stone cross have been found on the castle grounds. The cross is thought to have come from the lios (ring fort) to the south of the castle, where the monks were traditionally buried. A catholic branch of the O’Briens later settled in the townland, the present house being built by the family. They occupied Kilcoe Castle until 1851, when Cornelius O’Brien moved to Mounteagle Cottage in Mitchelstown and sold the Kilcoe property to Frances Doyne Dwyer, whose father John Dwyer, was secretary to John Fitzgibbon, first Earl of Clare and Lord Chancellor of Ireland.
Dwyer further