This fortress is situated in a parish of the same name in the Barony of Forth, about three miles south-east of Wexford. The name, which is written Killyan in the Liber Regalis visitations, signifies “The Church of St. Liedania.”

The building consists of a castellated rectangular keep, to which a modern house has been attached. There is also an enclosed bawn with most excellently preserved walls. Near the castle stand the ruins of its chapel.

In the notes attached to the Down Survey Maps, dating from about 1657, it is stated that at Great Killiane is “a Castle with a slate house adjoining, a decayed windmill, and seven cabbins.”

The castle is supposed to have been erected by the family of Hay, whose first representative in Ireland was Richard de Hay, Lord of Hay in Wales, who crossed with the Normans in 1196. From this family Killiane passed to a younger branch of the house of Chevers, of Ballyhally, early in the sixteenth century. Hamond Chevers, of Killiane, was one of the jurators to hold an inquisition on Tintern Abbey in 1543. He held his castle and lands from the Mayor of Wexford.

In 1627 Killiane was still in possession of a Hamond Chevers, and his son George held it with 237 acres when the rebellion broke out in 1641. He was present at the siege of Duncannon Fort in 1645, when it was defended against the Confederate Catholics by Laurence, Lord Esmond, and in consequence of the part he took in the insurrection Killiane was confiscated. In 1666 it was granted to Francis Hervey, Esq., with 220 acres, and it has remained in this family’s possession ever since.

One of the daughters of the house, who married the Very Rev. Samuel Adams, D.D., Dean of Cashel, in 1809, was so famous for her beauty that she was called “The Rose of Killiane.” The family has not lived in the castle for some years, and it is let by the present owner, Arthur Hervey, Esq.