THE ROCKCASTLE COUNTY LAND BRIEF
Land in the
Plateau Escarpment setting.
Rockcastle County has 316.6 square miles of land in Kentucky. 5 mapped landscape regions meet across Rockcastle County: Plateau Escarpment, Knobs-Norman Upland, Eastern Highland Rim, among others.
Open low mountains and plateau edges form a landscape of wooded uplands and deeper ravines. Escarpments mark the transition toward both the Ridge and Valley and the Interior Plateau.
Regional context: Southwestern Appalachians ↗ · Regional mapping across the county footprint
Where the landscape changes
Rockcastle County intersects 5 mapped regional units. The largest mapped shares are:
- Plateau Escarpment57.4%
- Knobs-Norman Upland21.9%
- Eastern Highland Rim18.7%
- Knobs-Lower Scioto Dissected Plateau1.8%
- Northern Forested Plateau Escarpment0.2%
Interior Plateau in Rockcastle County
Open hills, irregular plains and tablelands are developed on limestone and other sedimentary rocks. Oak-hickory woodland, local prairie and cedar-glade settings contribute to this diverse inland plateau.
Read the regional source ↗Western Allegheny Plateau in Rockcastle County
Rounded wooded hills and intervening valleys form an unglaciated plateau landscape. Valley floors contain much of the region's open land, contrasting with its more forested slopes.
Read the regional source ↗Finding your parcel within Rockcastle County
The atlas lists 3 cities, towns, townships, and Census communities associated with Rockcastle County, including Mount Vernon, Brodhead, Livingston. The list includes overlapping geography types and does not divide the county into exclusive service areas.
Rockcastle County by land and water
The Census records 1.53 square miles of water within Rockcastle County, or 0.5% of its total area. That share is close to Rockcastle County’s 0.5%. This is geographic context; waterfront status and usable land must be checked at the parcel.
For scale, Rockcastle County has 112.5 times the land area of nearby Mount Vernon city (2.81 square miles). These areas describe boundaries, not comparable property prices.
The Census boundary meets Garrard County, Jackson County, Laurel County, Lincoln County, Madison County, Pulaski County within Kentucky. A tract near one of these lines should be matched to the county identifier on its own records.

