In 1581, Queen Elizabeth I handed the land to Edmund Spenser, though he never took up residence there. Later, during the Elizabethan plantations the Castle was 'owned' by Sir Henry Wallop, who extended and refurbished the castle extensively. The Castle was later occupied by Cromwellian forces in 1649,retaken by Irish Confederates and Monarchists and then lost again to the Cromwellians. It was used as a prison during the 1798 Rebellion, by the Irish 'United Irishmen' and then by the British after they re-took Enniscorthy town.