Castles in Ireland

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Harry Avery's Castle

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Harry Avery's Castle is situated half a mile south-west of Newtownstewart, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. On a hill, ruined Harry Avery's Castle, is a 14th-century Gaelic stone castle - most unusual in Ulster. The castle consisted of a two-storey rectangular construction fronted by the massive D-shaped twin towers of the keep which remain. It was possibly built by Henry Aimbreidh O' Neil (Harry Avery O'Neill) (died 1392), and certainly named after him. The castle was captured by the English in 1609.

The Castle is a State Care Historic Monument in the townland of Upper or New Deer Park, in Strabane District Council area, at grid ref: H3915 8527.

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Killymoon Castle

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Killymoon Castle is a castle situated about one mile (1.6 km) south east of Cookstown, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, on the north bank of the Ballinderry River.[1] An 18 hole golf course has in recent years been built on the parkland, where British tournaments have been played.[2]

History[edit]
The original Killymoon Castle, which was built in 1671, burnt down in 1801. It was rebuilt in a larger version in 1803[1] to a design by John Nash. It is an asymmetrical structure with both round and square towers and Regency Gothick interiors

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Mountjoy Castle

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Mountjoy Castle is situated near the village of Mountjoy, in Magheralamfield townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, on a hill overlooking Lough Neagh. It was built by Lord Mountjoy in 1602 and partly burned in 1643. It is a two-storey brick building and the lower storey is stone-faced on the outside. It consists of a central rectangular block with four spear-shaped angle towers with gun loops. The north west tower is partly demolished and the west curtain wall destroyed. The entrance was on the south side of the east curtain wall. On the first floor there are some wide windows.

The Castle is a State Care Historic Monument in the townland of Magheralamfield, in Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council area, at grid ref: H9015 6870

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Roughan Castle

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Roughan Castle is a castle a mile outside Newmills, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, on the Dungannon to Stewartstown road. It was built about 1618 by Sir Andrew Stewart (d.1639), 2nd Lord Castlestewart, eldest son of Andrew Stewart (1580-1629) the third Lord Ochiltree, 1st Lord Castlestewart who came from Scotland during the plantation and established the nearby town of Stewartstown. Andrew Stewart junior acquired the land of Ballokevan from Robert Stewart between 1610 and 1619 and built his castle overlooking Roughan Lough. It is a small square castle, three storeys high with a central tower 20 feet (6.1 m) square, flanked by thick rounded towers at each corner.

The castle was once the refuge of Phelim O’Neill, leader of the Irish Rebellion of 1641 in Ulster. He was captured there in 1653 and taken to Dublin, where he was hanged for treason.[1] Robert Stewart, of Irry inherited the castle from his brothers and died here in 1662.

Roughan Castle is a State Care Historic Monument in the townland of Roughan, in Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council area, at grid ref: H8231 6830

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Stewart Castle

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Stewart Castle (also known as Newtownstewart Castle) is situated in Newtownstewart, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. It was built in 1619 by Sir Robert Newcomen in an English manor house style. It suffered extensive damage during the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and its subsequent capture by Sir Phelim O' Neill, and in 1689 on King James' return from the Siege of Derry. King James ordered the Stewart Castle, and the town, to be burnt down. In the main street a piece of the castle wall still stands.

Newtownstewart Plantation castle is a State Care Historic Monument in the townland of Newtownstewart, in Strabane District Council area, at grid ref: H4020 8583.[1]

An intact Bronze Age cist grave was found within castle site. It was excavated in 1999.

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Lismore Castle

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Lismore Castle is a stately home located in the town of Lismore in County Waterford in Ireland, belonging to the Duke of Devonshire. It was largely re-built in the Gothic style during the mid-nineteenth century by William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire.

Contents [hide]
1 Early history
2 The Earls of Cork & Burlington
3 The Dukes of Devonshire
4 References
5 External links
Early history[edit]
The castle site was originally occupied by Lismore Abbey, an important monastery and seat of learning established in the early 7th century. It was still an ecclesiastical centre when Henry II, King of England stayed here in 1171, and except for a brief period after 1185 when his son King John of England built a 'castellum' here, it served as the episcopal residence of the local bishop. In 1589, Lismore was leased and later acquired by Sir Walter Raleigh. Raleigh sold the property during his imprisonment for High Treason in 1602 to another infamous colonial adventurer, Richard Boyle, later 1st Earl of Cork.

The Earls of Cork & Burlington[edit]
Boyle came to Ireland from England in 1588 with only twenty-seven pounds in capital and proceeded to amass an extraordinary fortune. After purchasing Lismore he made it his principal seat and transformed it into a magnificent residence with impressive gabled ranges each side of the courtyard. He also built a castellated outer wall and a gatehouse known as the Riding Gate. The principal apartments were decorated with fretwork plaster ceilings, tapestry hangings, embroidered silks and velvet. It was here in 1627 that Robert Boyle The Father of Modern Chemistry, the fourteenth of the Earl's fifteen children, was born. The castle descended to another Richard Boyle, 4th Earl of Cork & 3rd Earl of Burlington, who was a noted influence on Georgian architecture (and known in architectural histories as the Earl of Burlington).

Lismore featured in the Cromwellian wars when, in 1645, a force of Catholic confederacy commanded by Lord Castlehaven sacked the town and Castle. Some restoration was carried out by Richard Boyle, 2nd Earl of Cork (1612-1698) to make it habitable again but neither he nor his successors lived at Lismore.

The Dukes of Devonshire[edit]
The castle (along with other Boyle properties - Chiswick House, Burlington House, Bolton Abbey and Londesborough Hall) was acquired by the Cavendish family in 1753 when the daughter and heiress of the 4th Earl of Cork, Lady Charlotte Boyle (1731-1754) married William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire, a future Prime Minister of Great Britain & Ireland. Their son, the 5th Duke (1748-1811) carried out improvements at Lismore, notably the bridge across the river Blackwater in 1775 designed by Cork-born architect Thomas Ivory.

The 6th Duke (1790–1858), commonly known as 'the Bachelor Duke', was responsible for the castle's present appearance. He began transforming the castle into a fashionable 'quasi-feudal ultra-regal fortress' as soon as he succeeded his father in 1811, engaging the architect William Atkinson from 1812 to 1822 to rebuild the castle in the Gothic style, using cut stone shipped over from Derbyshire. Lismore was always the Bachelor Duke's favourite residence, but as he grew older his love for the place developed into a passion. In 1850 he engaged his architect Sir Joseph Paxton, the designer of The Crystal Palace, to carry out improvements and additions to the castle on a magnificent scale - so much so that the present skyline is largely Paxton's work. At this time J.G. Crace of London, the leading maker of Gothic Revival furniture and his partner the leading architect A.W.N. Pugin were commissioned to transform the ruined chapel of the old Bishop's Palace into a medieval-style banqueting hall, with a huge perpendicular stained-glass window, choir-stalls and Gothic stenciling on the walls and roof timbers. The chimney-piece, which was exhibited at the Medieval Court of the Great Exhibition of 1851, was also designed by Pugin (and Myers) but was originally intended for Horstead Place in Sussex, it was rejected because it was too elaborate and subsequently bought for Lismore - the Barchard family emblems later replaced with the present Irish inscription Cead Mille Failte: a hundred thousand welcomes. Pugin also designed other chimney-pieces and furnishings in the castle and after his death in 1851 Crace continued to supply furnishings in the Puginesque manner.


King Edward VII visiting the Duke of Devonshire in May 1904
In 1858, the Cavendish family sponsored a new bridge over the Blackwater, which replaced the one built in 1775. This new construction followed designs by Charles Tarrant and was done by E.P.Nagle and C.H.Hunt.[2]

After the bachelor Duke's death, Lismore remained substantially unaltered. Fred Astaire's sister, Adele lived in the castle after marrying Lord Charles Cavendish, a son of the 9th Duke and, after his death in 1944, continued to use the castle until shortly before her death in 1981.[3] The castle was inherited by his brother, Lord Andrew Cavendish upon Adele's remarriage in 1947.[4] It is still owned by the Dukes of Devonshire, but it is lived in for only a short part of the year. Chatsworth House is the main family seat and the home of the Dowager Duchess.

The 12th Duke, who succeeded to the title in 2004, continues to live primarily on the family's Bolton Abbey estate. His son, William Burlington maintains an apartment in the castle and recently converted the derelict west range (2006) into a contemporary art gallery, known as Lismore Castle Arts. For most of the year the family's private apartments at Lismore are available to rent by groups of up to twenty-three visitors.

In 2004 The Robert Boyle Science Room was opened nearby in the Lismore Heritage Centre dedicated to his life and works where students have the opportunity of studying science and participating in scientific experiments.

Recently Lismore Castle was used as Northanger Abbey in the 2007 ITV dramatisation of that name during its Jane Austen season.

The castle's gardens are open to the public and feature contemporary sculptures, including works by Anthony Gormley, Marzia Colonna and Eilís O'Connell. The upper garden is a 17th-century walled garden,[5] while much of the informal lower garden was designed in the 19th century.

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Reginald’s Tower

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Reginald’s Tower is an historic tower in Waterford, Munster, Ireland. It is located at the eastern end of the city quay. The tower has been in usage for different purposes for many centuries and is an important landmark in Waterford and an important remnant of its medieval urban defence system. It is the oldest civic building in Ireland and it is the only urban monument in Ireland to retain its Norse or Viking name.[1]

Contents [hide]
1 Early history
2 Medieval history
3 Present day
4 See also
5 References
6 Bibliography
7 External links
Early history[edit]
Reginald’s Tower was built in 1003, as part of the city wall, by Reginald (or Ragnall), son of Ivar, the Norse king of Waterford. It was originally built of wood, but was later replaced by the stone structure that exists today.[2] The Norsemen of that period did not commonly use stone as a building material. However, excavations made in the 1990s have revealed that part of Waterford's defences were built in stone prior to the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1170.[3] The present tower is likely to have been built in the 13th or 14th century, but it may well have been constructed between 1253 and 1280.[4] In 1185 Prince John of England landed in Waterford and organised the rebuilding of the city's defences, including the tower.[3]

The tower is 54 feet high; its horizontal cross section is circular. It is 42½ feet in diameter and is surmounted by a conical roof. A spiral staircase ascends within the thick walls - these are 10 feet wide at the base, tapering down to 7 feet at the top. It was part of the ancient city walls of Waterford and could be considered the apex of a triangle formed by three structures – Turgesius Tower on Barronstrand Street, St. Martins Castle on Lady Lane, and Reginald’s Tower at the quay and the mall.[5] It was strategically located on the high ground between a branch of St. John's River on the southeast (since drained, and now known as the Mall) and the River Suir to the north. It is also very close to the historic French Church. The site is sometimes called Dundory (an Irish word which means "fort of oak"), and hence the tower is occasionally called the Dundory Tower. It is also known as the Ring Tower.[4] It was one of seventeen towers which encircled the city of Waterford in medieval times. Today it is the largest of the six surviving towers, which are considered the finest examples of medieval urban defence in Ireland.[3] The other surviving towers are the Watch Tower, Double Tower, French Tower, Semi-Lunar Tower and Beach Tower.[6]

The tower derives its name from the Hiberno-Norse (Irish-Viking) ruler of the city, Ragnall MacGillemaire, who was held prisoner by the Anglo-Normans in the tower.[7] When the Normans, led by Richard de Clare, attacked Waterford in 1170, the tower was of strategic importance, and its capture heralded the fall of the city. During the medieval period, the tower continued to be surrounded by water on its north and southeast sides.

Medieval history[edit]
The tower has been used as a mint,[3] a prison, and a military storehouse. It is also famous for being the location of the wedding of Richard de Clare, the second Earl of Pembroke, and Aoife (pronounced eefa), daughter of Dermot MacMurrough, King of Leinster.[7] It occasionally served as a royal castle, and was visited by King John in 1210, who ordered new coins to be struck there. Richard II visited the tower in 1394 and again in 1399.[3] He used the tower to store his munitions. On 27 July 1399 Richard left Reginald's Tower as King of England and Wales; on his arrival in England he was captured by the future Henry IV and forced to abdicate.

In 1463, coins were minted in Reginald's Tower by order of the Irish Parliament, which, at that time, was meeting in the city. The coins had the words "Civitas Waterford" struck on one side. In 1495, the tower’s cannons successfully deterred the forces of Perkin Warbeck, the pretender to the throne of Henry VII. Cannons from the tower sank one of his ships during an 11 day siege. This was the first successful use of artillery by an Irish city. A cannon from this ship was recovered from the River Suir in 1901.[3] This victory earned the city its motto Urbs Intacta Manet - "Waterford remains the unconquered city".[8]

In 1649, Waterford was besieged by the army of the English parliamentarian Oliver Cromwell, but he failed to capture the city on that occasion. They returned in 1650, and this time they were successful. A cannonball, visible high up the wall on the north side of the building, is lodged firmly in the wall, and is reputed to be from this siege.[9]

In 1690, following his defeat at the Battle of the Boyne, James II of England is said to have climbed to the top of the tower to take a last look at his lost kingdom before embarking for exile in France.[10]

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the tower was used to store munitions. In the early 19th century it functioned as a prison.

Present day[edit]

In 1861, Reginald's Tower became the property of the Waterford Corporation,[9] and the residence of the Chief Constable of Waterford. It continued to be inhabited until 1954, when the last resident left and the building was turned into a museum. During the Emergency it functioned as an air raid shelter.[11] It currently houses the Waterford Viking Museum and exhibits many of the archaeological finds from the 2003 dig at Woodstown on the River Suir near the city.

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Strancally Castle

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Strancally Castle is a country house in County Waterford, Ireland. It is located on the River Blackwater, close to the town of Youghal in County Cork.

History[edit]
The original Strancally castle was built by Raymond le Gros. It was then reputedly occupied by Spaniards, who lured the local landowners to a banquet and then dropped them through a secret trapdoor into a flooded cave. When news of the murder hole leaked out the Spanish were routed and the castle destroyed.

The present building was designed and built around 1830 by James and George Richard Pain for John Keily briefly MP for Clonmel and the High Sheriff of County Waterford for 1819–20. It stands in front of the ruin of the original Desmond castle.

In 1856 the castle, in an estate of 5000 acres, was bought by 24 year old George Whitelocke Lloyd of a wealthy Anglo-Irish manufacturing family. He was appointed High Sheriff of Waterford for 1859–60. [1] His son William Whitelocke Lloyd was an army officer who fought in the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 and was an accomplished artist. [2]

The estate eventually came into the possession of the Irish Land Commission, who sold off the land piecemeal before selling the house with a remaining 160 acres

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Athlone Castle

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Athlone Castle is a Castle located in Athlone, Westmeath, Ireland dating from the 1100s and is a popular tourist destination.

History[edit]
The earliest recorded “castle” of Athlone was a wooden structure built in 1129, by King Tairrdelbach Ua Conchobair of Connacht, possibly on the site of the present castle. The stone castle which survives today dates from 1210 and was built for King John by his Irish Justiciar, Bishop John de Gray of Norwich. It was built to defend the crossing point of the river at Athlone and to provide a bridgehead to facilitate the Norman advance into Connaught.

The castle of 1210 was a free standing polygonal tower built on a newly built (or existing) ‘motte’ or man-made hill. This tower, though great altered, can still be seen as the central keep or ‘donjon’ of the castle today. At the time the castle was built the Shannon, as it passed through Athlone, was very different from today. It is likely that in the early days of its existence the castle enjoyed the protection of a fosse or moat.

The castle was greatly fortified in the late 13th century (c1276) when the original ‘motte’ was surrounded with a curtain wall with three-quarter round towers (or drum towers) at the corner. These features, again greatly rebuilt, still survive today. The castle was reconstructed by Sir William Brabazon (Lord Justice of Ireland) in 1547.[1] The external walls and towers came under heavy fire during the Sieges of Athlone in 1690-91 and were later destroyed when lightning struck the castle in 1697. The castle as we view it today shows signs of extensive remodelling during the Napoleonic era when it was modernised and adapted for artillery. Today the squat drum towers are somewhat reminiscent of the Martello towers (again of the Napoleonic era) which are found around Dublin.

The large scale Ordnance Survey map of 1874 names some of the features which were then extant on the castle. These include: Officers’ quarters & soldiers’ quarters; master gunners’ quarters; guard house; ablutions room; cook house; kitchen; guard house and draw bridge. The officers’ quarters and soldiers’ quarters were located in the five-bay, two-storey barrack building which overlooks Main Street. This late Georgian building dates to c1810.

A careful examination of the Castle still reveals many interesting features including the shape of the ‘sally gate’ in the wall of the castle overlooking the Shannon; a bow loop recalling the era when the castle was protected by archers, in the wall facing into Castle Street as well as gun-embrasures and pistol loops on the walls protecting the entrance ramp. One important feature which disappeared in the 20th century was the drawbridge which survived until the 1940s.

The Keep of the Castle is a National Monument. The castle which had been part of the defences of Athlone for 750 years became the home of a museum run by the Old Athlone Society in 1966 and of a modern visitor centre developed by Athlone Urban District Council in 1991. Athlone Castle is pivotal to the understanding of the development of the town of Athlone, linking the modern Athlone with its Norman founders.[2]

Refurbishments[edit]

View within the Castle fortification in Athlone after the restoration works
Athlone Castle has reopened as of 2012 following a multi-million euro renovation to transform the castle into a state-of-the-art, multi-sensory visitor experience. It features eight newly designed exhibition spaces pursue both a chronological and thematic sequence including 3D maps, audio-visual installations and illustrations by renowned illustrator Victor Ambrus (best known for his work on Channel 4’s archaeological television programme Time Team).

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Ballinlough Castle

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Ballinlough Castle is a 17th-century country house situated near the rural town of Clonmellon in County Westmeath, Ireland on a hill overlooking two of the Westmeath lakes. It is the home of Sir Nicholas and Lady Nugent.

The ground floor houses a large drawing room and dining room with four first-floor bedrooms approached by a vaulted corridor above. The rooms have what may be the tallest windows in a private house of this period, overlooking the woods and lake. The chimneypiece in the drawing room is identical to a Wyatt chimneypiece at Curraghmore, Co. Waterford.

The gardens, together with the lakeside and woodland walks, are no longer open to the public but are the venue for the Body & Soul Music Festival in June.

Contents [hide]
1 History
2 See also
3 Other Westmeath Castles
4 References
5 External links
History[edit]
The castle was built in 1614, according to the date on the O'Reilly coat of arms over the front door. It was extended on approximately 1790, when a new wing was added by Sir Hugh O'Reilly, probably attributable to the amateur Thomas Wogan Browne, who was also responsible for Malahide Castle, the home of Sir Hugh O'Reilly's sister Margaret.

In 1812 the family changed their name from O'Reilly to Nugent. Hugh O'Reilly, who had been made a Baronet, assumed by Royal licence the surname of Nugent under the terms of a legacy from his maternal uncle John Nugent. Since then several generations of Baronet Nugents have occupied the house. They are one of the few Irish Catholic families from the seventeenth century who still live in their original family home. The present owner is the 8th Baronet.

The grounds of the castle have hosted several music concerts. Artists who have performed there since 2006 include Kenny Rogers, Van Morrison, Pet Shop Boys, Tiesto, Alexandra Burke and Dwight Yoakam. The 4th annual Life Festival was also held in the grounds in May 2009. In 2010 the castle hosted Ireland's first gay music festival, MILK.

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Clonyn Castle

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Clonyn Castle also known as Delvin Castle, is a Victorian country house situated in Delvin, County Westmeath, Ireland some 18 km from Mullingar along the N52. It is a square, symmetrical, two-storey castle-like building of cut limestone with four tall, round corner towers at each corner. The interior has a large two-storey hall with gallery and arcading. It was one of the last Victorian baronial castles to be built in Ireland.

A golf course [1] open to the public lies behind the castle, 500m from the centre of Delvin.

History[edit]
An early castle[2] (now a ruin in the centre of the village of Delvin[3]) is believed to have been built in 1181 by Hugh de Lacy, Lord of Meath for his brother-in-law, Sir Gilbert de Nugent. Sir Gilbert de Nugent, originally from the Nogent-le-Rotrou area in France, came to Ireland with Hugh de Lacy in 1171. Sir Gilbert was granted the title Baron of Delvin within the Lordship of Meath.

A second castle was built in 1639 by Richard Nugent, 1st Earl of Westmeath, on elevated ground overlooking the village of Delvin and may be referred to as either Delvin or Clonyn Castle. When Cromwell's army approached Nugent caused the house to be burnt down and fled to Galway. The castle was restored by his grandson and occupied until 1860. [4]

The present house was built a short distance away from the previous castle by Lord Greville and his wife Lady Rosa. Following the death of the 8th Earl and 1st Marquess of Westmeath in 1871, Clonyn had passed to Lady Rosa, his only surviving child. She had married Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Greville, who in 1866 had assumed by Royal License the additional surname of Nugent. This latest building remained a Nugent residence until 1922, when Patrick Nugent sold it and moved to Scotland. It was afterwards home to a community of Australian nuns.[4]

In the post-World War II period, at the instigation of Rabbi Solomon Schonfeld, the castle served briefly as a home for Jewish children, most of them orphans of the Holocaust. Manchester businessman and philanthropist Yankel Levy was persuaded to buy the castle and associated land for £30,000 and some 100 children aged between 5 and 17 were temporarily housed before rejoining their families or starting new lives in England, America or Israel. Levy was consequently bankrupted. [5]

It is currently privately owned by Mrs Dillon.[

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Killua Castle

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Killua Castle,[1] and the nearby Raleigh Obelisk, are situated near Clonmellon, County Westmeath, Ireland. The present house was built c.1780 by Sir Benjamin Chapman and consisted of a hall, dining room, oval drawing room, breakfast parlour and front and back stairs. There was also a stable yard, barn and haggard. From here, the Chapmans administered the surrounding farm lands of some 9,000 acres (36 km2) in the 18th century. In a ruinous condition, it is currently[when?] being renovated.

Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Raleigh Obelisk
3 Other Westmeath Castles
4 See also
5 External links
6 References
History[edit]
Killua Castle and its surrounding lands were granted around 1667 to Benjamin Chapman, a captain in Cromwell's army, having been confiscated from the Knights Hospitallers of St. John. On his death the estate passed to his elder son, William, and on William's death in 1734 to his son Benjamin. Benjamin died in 1779 and was succeeded by his son Benjamin, who was created a baronet.

The present structure was built in 1780 by Sir Benjamin Chapman, 1st Baronet after demolishing the original castle. It passed from him in 1810 by special remainder to his brother Thomas who in the early 1820s commissioned the addition of a large round tower and several other towers, including a library tower, staircase tower and back door tower. He also completed the castellation and erected the Raleigh obelisk nearby. He was succeeded in 1837 by his son Sir Montagu Chapman, 3rd Baronet, who was lost at sea off the coast of Australia in 1852. Montagu's brother Benjamin, the 4th baronet, inherited, from whom it passed to his son Montagu Richard, 5th baronet. Montagu Richard died childless in 1907 and his widow, a cousin, divided the estate between the four legitimate daughters of her brother Sir Thomas Chapman, 7th Baronet. The house and the remaining 1,200 acres (4.9 km2) of land were sold in 1949.

Until recently the house had become an ivy-clad roofless ruin.

Raleigh Obelisk[edit]
The obelisk, erected in 1810 by Sir Thomas Chapman some 200m to 300m from the house, marks the position where Sir Walter Raleigh planted some of the first potatoes that he imported to Ireland.[2] Antoine Parmentier who promoted the cultivation of potatoes for human consumption and the Spanish conquistadores who first imported them from South America along the south and west Irish coast are also associated with Irish potato promotion.[citation needed] However, it is uncertain who is initially responsible of the first potato plantation in Ireland, even though Raleigh is frequently credited with this milestone in Irish history.

The inscription on the obelisk currently reads "Sir Walter G. Raleigh," but there is no other evidence that Raleigh had a middle name, and the "G" appears to be vandalism added after the original inscription.

The obelisk has been recently restored through a grant from the Irish Georgian Society.

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Knockdrin Castle

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Knockdrin Castle is, according to The Buildings of Ireland: North Leinster (published in London in 1993 and better known as the Pevsner Guide to North Leinster), mainly an early 19th-century neo-Gothic structure. The current castle was largely designed by Richard Morrison (later Sir Richard Morrison) and was built on the site of High Park, the original 18th-century mansion that formerly stood there. The castle was constructed for Sir Richard Levinge, 6th Bt. (1785-1848), probably in the 1810s. The castle is currently the home of the von Prondzynski family. The current owner, Prof. Ferdinand von Prondzynski, was President of Dublin City University from 2000 to 13 July 2010, and is now Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, Scotland.

Until the early 18th-century, the main residence on the estate was a small Norman castle (often known locally as 'King John's Castle') which was destroyed by fire. The main part of High Park, the previous mansion that stood on the site of the current Knockdrin Castle, may have been built in the early 18th-century for Sir Richard Levinge, 1st Bt., M.P. (1656-1724), although there were probably further alterations and additions made to the house that were completed by the late 18th-century. The Levinges came to Ireland with the Williamites, in the late 17th-century. The first Sir Richard Levinge was Chief Justice of the Common Pleas and a member of the Lords Commissioners, who were appointed by the Crown to settle all the land questions which had arisen in Ireland after the Cromwellian conquest, the Restoration and the Williamite Wars. Sir Richard took advantage of his position to purchase the Knockdrin Estate from the Tuites, who were the Norman-Irish owners up to that time. At the time there were over 12,000 acres (49 km2).

The present estate of about 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) was laid out as a hunting ground. Lord Randolph Churchill and his wife, Lady Randolph, parents of Winston, were frequent visitors. Jennie Churchill declared that the foxes were as wild as the locals. Winston Churchill himself privately visited the castle during the War of Independence.

During World War II, the castle was taken over for troop accommodation and was occupied by a company of the 6th (Dublin) Infantry of the Irish Army. The Army left in 1945 and handed the castle back to the Levinges.

The Levinges owned Knockdrin until 1946, although the last Sir Richard Levinge to live there (later a Director of Guinness Ltd.) had by then not been resident there for some time. In that year the estate was sold to Paddy Dunne-Cullinan, who remained there until 1961 when he in turn sold the estate to Hans Freiherr von Prondzynski, and his wife Irene Freifrau von Prondzynski, from Germany. The arable land is now leased out but the family continues to live in the castle. Until the very early 19th-century, the castle and estate were called High Park. The property was then renamed Knockdrin, after a hill on the estate; the name is also related to Lough Drin, a small lake on the estate. The Irish name for the locality is Muine Liath (pronounced Moe in ah lee ah), which means Grey Shrubbery. Muine Liath is written in English as Monilea.

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Moydrum Castle

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Moydrum Castle is a ruined castle situated in the locality of Moydrum (Magh Droma in Irish), outside the town of Athlone, County Westmeath, Ireland.

Contents [hide]
1 Background
2 Yachting
3 Destruction
4 Other Westmeath Castles
5 References
Background[edit]
The lands of Moydrum were granted to the Handcock family, originally from Devonshire in England, during the Cromwellian plantations of Ireland in the 17th century. From then on the family remained one of the most prominent landowning dynasties and landlords in the area.

Moving forward several generations, head of family William Handcock served as a Member of Parliament (MP) in Grattan’s Parliament, representing Athlone until the parliament’s dissolution in 1800 following the Act of Union with the United Kingdom.[1] Handcock had originally been an opponent of the Act, but was promised a peerage should he vote in favour of it. He duly succumbed and finally, in 1812, Handcock was created 1st Baron Castlemaine.[1]

The Baron decided to create an appropriate stately home on his lands at Moydrum, and therefore asked architect Richard Morrison to remodel and enlarge an existing house belonging to the family there.[2] The resulting gothic-revivalist castle was completed in 1814 and was described as a "handsome residence" in Samuel Lewis' 1837 Topographical Dictionary Of Ireland, "a solid castellated mansion with square turrets at each angle, beautifully situated by a small lake, and surrounded by an extensive and richly wooded demesne".[3]

By the 1880s, and the time of the 4th Baron, the Barony of Moydrum comprised 11,444 acres (46.3 km2). [4]

Yachting[edit]
The Lords Castlemaine were prominent members of Lough Ree Yacht Club which is currently located at Ballyglass, Hillquarter, Athlone.

Major G.S. Handcock was Hon. Secretary of Lough Ree Yacht Club and was appointed in 1920 as chairman of a committee to agree on the design of an 18 foot one design dinghy for the Shannon Yacht Clubs.[5]

Destruction[edit]
Growing tensions in Ireland ultimately led to the Irish War of Independence of 1919 – 1921. The effects of the war were felt in the Irish midlands as much as anywhere else in the country. In early July 1921 British military forces burned several homes in south Westmeath and, incensed, local Irish Republican Army (IRA) forces felt that this could not go unpunished. Moydrum Castle, given its status as the seat of a prominent member of the British House of Lords, was chosen as a suitably symbolic subject for their reprisals. On the night of July 3rd, 1921, an assembly of IRA members marched on the castle. The 5th Baron was out of Ireland at the time but his wife and daughter, together with several servants, were in residence and were woken from their sleep by knocking at the door. The Baroness and her daughter were given time to gather together a few valuable belongings before the building was set alight. The blaze completely destroyed the castle.

Following the establishment of the Irish Free State, much of the land belonging to the Barony was improved, divided and sold on by the Irish Land Commission.[6] The Baron, his wife and family were never to return to Moydrum.

Photographer Anton Corbijn photographed Moydrum Castle for the cover of the Irish rock band U2's fourth studio album, 1984's The Unforgettable Fire and gave it a sepia tone. The photograph, however, was a virtual copy of a picture on the cover of a 1980 book In Ruins: The Once Great Houses of Ireland by Simon Marsden, for which U2 had to pay compensation. It was taken from the same spot and used the same polarising filter technique, but with the addition of the four band members

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Nugent Castle

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Nugent Castle (or ) Delvin Castle, now a ruin, was built in 1181 by Hugh de Lacy, Lord of Meath for his brother-in-law, Gilbert de Nugent. De Nugent came to Ireland with de Lacy in 1171 and settled on some land in Delvin. De Nugent was granted the title Baron of Delvin within the Lordship of Meath, a title now held by the Earl of Westmeath. The ruins of Nugent Castle remain near the center of the town. A second castle was built several centuries later, hundreds of metres from the centre of the Delvin settlement of that time.[citation needed]

Clonyn Castle is situated on dominant ground south of Delvin between the N52 and the Collinstown road. An alternative access to the castle grounds exists on the Collinstown Road opposite the church. This access is also used by Delvin Golf Club members

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Portlick Castle

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Portlick Castle is a medieval tower house castle near the 21st century village of Glasson, County Westmeath, Ireland, some 6 miles from Athlone on the shores of Lough Ree. It comprises a square medieval 4-storey stone tower with an attached 2-storey Georgian wing and Victorian tower.

It is the only medieval castle that has seen consistent use from the time of its occupancy in 1185 to the present day.

History[edit]
Portlick Castle was constructed by Sir Henry de Leon (c.1176 - 1244), of a cadet branch of Viscounty of Léon of Leon, Brittany in the late 12th century. Sir Henry was married to Maud de Courcy. Sir Henry de Leon, accompanied Prince John (later King John) of England to Ireland, after the initial invasion by the Earl of Pembroke (Strongbow)back in 1169, and was granted large areas of land in the Westmeath area. The Dillon family crest has a red lion in the centre surrounded by three red shields. The surname eventually evolved from De-lee-on to Di-lee-on to Dillon. The Gaelic version of this surname is "Diolun". A branch of the Dillons lived in Portlick Castle from the time of the completion of its construction until 1696 when Garrett Dillon was attainted under the Articles of Limerick. It was then granted to Thomas Keightly, a member of King William's privy council, who in turn sold it to William Palmer of Dublin.[1]

Subsequently the grant was repudiated and the property repossessed by the crown to be sold to the Reverend Robert Smyth (Smith) in 1703. A member of the Smyth family lived in Portlick Castle until 1955. The Smyths built the Georgian residential wing and in 1860 Robert Ralph Smyth then built a castellated 3-storey tower block at the front of the Georgian addition to give the building its current twin tower appearance.[1]

The 2012 owner is an out-of-country businessman who lives in Portlick Castle for six weeks per year during the winter. The entire castle can be rented the other forty-six weeks in the year for 1,000 euros per night. It was recently for sale, with 19 acres of land, for 2.29 million euros

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Tullynally Castle

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Tullynally Castle is a country house (also known as Pakenham Hall Castle) situated some 2 km from Castlepollard on the Coole village road in County Westmeath, Ireland. The gothic style building has over 120 rooms and has been home to the Pakenham family (now the Earls of Longford) for over 350 years.

The house is surrounded by 12 acres of gardens, including woodland gardens and walled gardens laid out in the early 19th century with a limestone grotto and ornamental lakes. Recently has been added a Chinese garden with a pagoda and a Tibetan garden of waterfalls and streams. [1]

The site entrance from the public road is situated 1.5 km outside Castlepollard on the Granard road 20 km from Mullingar, 80 km from Dublin via the N4 or N3 roads. The grounds are open to the public.

Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Other Westmeath castles
3 References
4 External links
History[edit]
In 1665 Henry Pakenham, a captain in the Parliamentary Dragoons, was granted land in lieu of pay arrears that included Tullynally. His grandson Thomas was made first Baron Longford in 1756. Thomas' grandson, another Thomas and 3rd Baron Longford also inherited the superior title of 2nd Earl of Longford in 1794 from his grandmother, the Countess of Longford.

The 2nd Earl remodelled the 17th-century house in the gothic revival style in the early 1800s, adding towers and a moat. It was by then larger than any other castellated house in Ireland. Since then, the house has passed down through successive generations of Pakenhams to the present earl, Thomas Pakenham, 8th Earl of Longford and is the largest house in private hands in Ireland. [2]

The British Army general, Sir Edward Pakenham GCB, was born and raised in the house.

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Tyrrellspass Castle,

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Tyrrellspass Castle,[1] dating back to circa 1411, is situated in the town of Tyrrellspass, County Westmeath, Ireland. It is the only remaining castle of the Tyrrells, who came to Ireland around the time of the Norman Invasion.

Contents [hide]
1 Architecture
2 History
3 Today
4 References
5 External links
Architecture[edit]
The castle is approx. 20 metres high and follows the general pattern of tower houses, stone built, essentially defensive and comprising a series of superimposed chambers. The original spiral staircase and one of the original roof beams dating from 1280 can still be seen today. Alongside the entrance door is a Murder-hole through which intruders could be attacked.[2]

History[edit]
Tyrellspass is the modern name for Fartullagh, where in 1597 Captain Richard Tyrrell, a chief ally of Aodh Mór Ó Néill in the Nine Years' War, won a major victory against English crown forces in what has become known as the Battle of Tyrrellspass.

During the Cromwellian invasion of 1650, it is said the castle occupants suffered a great deal and many were executed. The castle and surrounding land was acquired soon after by the Rochfort family, who became the Earls of Belvedere. In 1796 the 2nd earl leased the castle to the army as a barracks.[3] In 1850 ownership passed to Charles Brinsley Marlay, grandson of the 1st earl's only daughter, after whom it passed to Lieut.-Colonel Charles Howard-Bury, the explorer. He sold off the houses on the estate.

After a tumultuous history of intrusion, the castle was extensively restored by Phillip Ginnell in the 1970s.

Today[edit]
During the early 1990s, the building was converted into a modern restaurant. Today it operates under the name Tyrrellspass Castle Restaurant.[4] It also hosts medieval banquets.

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Bargy Castle

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Bargy Castle is a Norman fortress near the village of Tomhaggard in the Barony of Bargy, County Wexford, Ireland, some 12 km south-west of Wexford town. The name Bargy derives from Ui Bhairrche, the name of a local tribe.

The building is a square keep to which two wings have been added at right angles during the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries. The keep itself is in good condition, having been renovated several times.

History
From the 15th century the castle was occupied by the Rossiter family until 1667, when it was confiscated by Cromwell in response to Rossiter's part in the defence of Wexford. It was then granted to William Ivory, who sold it to the Harvey family. It came down to Beauchamp Bagenal Harvey, the commander of the Wexford insurgents in the Wexford Rebellion of 1798. After the suppression of the uprising, and Harvey's execution on Wexford bridge, the castle was again confiscated and used as a barracks until 1808, after which it was handed back to James Harvey, Bagenal's brother. He, however, lived in London and allowed the castle to deteriorate, but after his death it passed to Councillor John Harvey, who restored it. He died in 1880 and is entombed in a mausoleum in front of the hall door. The castle was afterwards let to a Mr Leared, who re-roofed and improved it. [1] The last Harvey family member to own this castle was James Harvey, and his wife Henrietta. Their daughter, Antoinette Harvey, was born in the castle in 1945.

It was bought in 1960 by General Sir Eric de Burgh, a former Chief of the General staff, Indian Army (and the maternal grandfather of musician and songwriter Chris de Burgh) and occupied by him and Charles and Maeve Davison, Chris de Burgh's parents. Together they converted it into a private hotel.

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Barntown Castle


Barntown Castle is located about three miles west of Wexford town on the main Wexford to New Ross road. It is a Tower House in ruins set in the middle of a grazing field. A Georgian mansion has replaced the castle as the residence of the local landowners, currently the Joyce family. The ruins of the castle are used as a cattle shelter. Barntown village and townsland has a Pugin designed Roman Catholic church and a national school. Close by, on the ridge of the hills south of the castle, is located a monument to General Clooney famous for his part in the 1798 Rising.This man is referred to as Col. Clooney on a plaque at the ruins of Geneva Barracks, on Waterford Harbour. He also, reputedly, captured a British warship near Duncannon during the 1798 Rebellion. He is buried in St. Mullins.

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Ferns Castle

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Ferns Castle (Irish: Fearna, meaning "alder trees" short for Fearna Mór Maedhóg) is a historic town in north County Wexford, Ireland. It is 16 km (10 mi) from Enniscorthy, where the Gorey to Enniscorthy N11 road joins the R745 regional road. The remains of Ferns Castle are in the centre of the town.


View of Ferns from Castle tower.
Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Annalistic references
3 Religion and heritage
4 Transport
5 People
6 See also
7 References
8 External links
History[edit]
Ferns is believed to have been established in the 6th century, when a monastery was founded in 598 dedicated to St Mogue of Clonmore (St.Aidan) who was a Bishop of Ferns.[7] The town became the capital of the Kingdom of Leinster, and also the Capital of Ireland when the kings of that southern part of the province established their seat of power there. It was a very large city then but shrunk in the fire that destroyed most of it. The city stretched all the way down and further than the River Bann (tributary of the River Slaney), if it was not burnt it would've been one of Ireland's biggest cities today. King Dermot MacMurrough founded St. Mary's Abbey as a house of Augustinian canons c. 1158 and was buried there in 1171.[8]

Ferns Castle, an Anglo-Norman fortress, was built in the 13th century by William, Earl Marshall. Today about half of the castle still stands. The town also contains the 13th-century St Edan's Cathedral (Church of Ireland) this Cathedral is not the original one but the ruins of the original one can be found a few feet away from the existing one and the existing Cathedral today is not the fully restored Cathedral it was supposed to be (it was order by Queen Elizabeth I to be rebuilt to its former self by the O'Byrnes of Wicklow but they only restored part), which is the Cathedral today. It can be seen as an artefact and a museum and of course a church. The Tower and the Chapter House were added on in the 19th century, AD. It also boasts several high crosses and parts of crosses.

The old Catholic church stood at the north of the town until the 1970s, when there was a roof problem. The Parish Priest at the time ordered it, with the go ahead of the parish to demolish it. A convent, St. Aidan’s Monastery of Adoration now stands in its place.

The foundation stone of the new Church of St. Aidan was laid on the Feast of St. Aidan, 31 January 1974, the foundation stone lies at the northwest corner wall of the church at the entrance to the sacristy. The new Catholic Church was completed in 1975. In the 2000s the new church went under a major refurbishment since it too had roof problems with leakage of the roof and so on, there was a previously roof problem 15 years after the church was built. They replaced the slates with new composite metal-material, the inside was also refurbished and few minor changes were made to the look of the building.

A plaque listing the names of parish priests, from 1644, is on the wall to the right of the altar, beside the pipe organ. The pipe organ in St.Aidan's Catholic Church is more than 100 years old and used to be a "pump" organ until the parish modified it to electricity. The pipe organ was transferred from the old church to the new church and is still in use. The Anglican Cathedral and the New Catholic Church are open daily The Anglican Cathedral - all day and The New Catholic Church - 9 am until around 4pm, usually or sometimes later on Fridays.

The 19th century population peaked in 1851, but never reached the levels of medieval times. Lewis's Topography of 1834 claimed the town "consists chiefly of one irregular street, and contains 106 houses indifferently built, retaining no trace of its ancient importance".[9] The Abbey, St.Peter's Church (Catholic and Anglican), and the remainder of the great cathedral are regarded as holy places and regarded as church still this includes the abbey which now has the title of a church and abbey.

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Carnew Castle

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History[edit]
Carnew made its first appearance in historical records in 1247 as the Norman borough of “Carnebothe” with its own Royal Charter granted by King Henry III of England.

A Welshman, Calcott Chambre, leased Carnew castle in 1619, and over the following two decades established a large iron smelting industry just outside the town. He encouraged Welsh families to settle in the area, and created one of the country’s largest deer parks, with a radius of about seven Irish miles.

During the Rebellion of 1641 Chambre and about 160 settlers were besieged in the castle for 22 weeks, compelled to feed on carcasses that ‘had long lain in lime pits’, by a force of around 1,000 insurgents led by the Mastersons, Byrnes and Donal Kavanagh of Ballingate, who also ‘pulled down ye pulpits, burned ye seats and defaced and demolished the church of Carnowe’. When the besieged finally surrendered some of them were hanged, some were detained for service while the largest number, including Chambre, were accompanied by a convoy to Dublin. The castle was held by the Knockloe O’Byrnes until 1649, when it was taken by Sir Richard Talbot. Two years later the castle took a pounding from Cromwell’s Roundheads under the command of Colonel Hewson during the course of which the roof was destroyed. In 1655 an edict was issued ordering all “inhabitants of Carne, Coolattin and Clohamon who had not shown good affection” to be banished, and their property shared amongst the Adventurers.

Protestant colonisers arrived during the second half of the 17th century when the exploitation of the great oak forest of Shillelagh was at its peak; many were skilled specialists such as bellows makers, founders, finers and hammer men, who worked in the local ironworks, which used vast quantities of oak for the manufacture of charcoal to smelt iron ore shipped from Bristol.

The 1798 Rebellion[edit]
On the morning of 25 May the garrison in Carnew heard of the long feared outbreak of the insurgency in neighbouring Co. Kildare and of military losses in Ballymore-Eustace, Naas, and Prosperous. They immediately rounded up peasants suspected of rebel sympathies and incarcerated them in the castle dungeon. 38 prisoners, including 18 married men, were marched to the local handball alley and shot by firing squad as a warning to the local populace, an event remembered as the Carnew massacre.

News of these summary executions, and of a similar slaughter at Dunlavin, spread throughout County Wicklow and across the border in Wexford, seeming to give substance to the rumours of extermination already prevalent.

On 4 June the government evacuated the town and four days later it was attacked and burned in a revenge raid by Wexford rebels, led by “the screeching general” Anthony Perry.

On 30 June rebel forces inflicted a heavy defeat on government cavalry at the Ballyellis ambush. Crown losses numbered 49 but many more died as a result of injuries sustained in the battle. Casualties included 25 of the infamous Regiment of Ancient Britons.

Following the battle Carnew was once again attacked. The loyalists under the command of Captain Thomas Swan of Tombreane barricaded themselves in Blayney’s Malthouse (now Quinn’s estate agents). The rebels failed in their efforts to either dislodge them or to set the building on fire, and incurred 19 casualties in their efforts to do so.

Carnew’s most infamous daughter, Bridget ‘Croppy Biddy’ Dolan, spent three months as a camp follower with the rebels. As a paid government informer, she helped to convict many of her former associates and relatives. Her most notable victim was Billy Byrne of Ballymanus who was hanged in Wicklow Jail in September 1799. On Bid’s evidence, at least nine Carnew men were transported to New South Wales in 1802. In later life Bid was compelled to eke out a living from the poor box in the town’s Protestant church. She was stoned every time she appeared in public, and kept two bulldogs for her protection. She died aged 50 in 1827, and is the only member of her family to be interred in Carnew’s Church of Ireland churchyard.

The early decades of the 19th century saw the rebuilding of Carnew and Tinahely, heavily funded by the Coollattin Estate. Carnew castle was re-roofed and modernised for the arrival as rector in 1813 of a brother in law of Earl Fitzwilliam, Rev. Richard Ponsonby (later Bishop of Derry). His successor, Revd Henry Moore, who built the high castle wall, strongly opposed Earl Fitzwilliam and his agent Bob Challoner’s efforts to provide an interdenominational school (now Carnew Enterprise Centre) as a means of healing old wounds. Following a Chancery Court ruling, Moore got his way and was allowed to build a Protestant school on the only site available to him, the corner of the churchyard. Fitzwilliam’s reaction was to evict the rector from the castle.

Sectarian strife was never far below the surface. During the latter part of the century there were prosecutions for the removal of a Union Jack from the churchyard on 12 July. In court discretion generally prevailed and the offenders were released with a warning.