castles historical cork

The remains of a square castle with rounded turrets at the corners and surrounded by a moat.
Although in the style of the castles of the 13th century, it was built in the 15th or 16th century, probably by the Cogans from whom it was acquired by the Earls of Desmond....

This castle was once the club-house of Monkstown Golf-club, from 1908 to 1971.  At the moment the castle is under reconstruction and will not be finished until April 2009!

This castle was built by Anastasia Archdeacon, nee Gould, about 1636.
She built it while her husband was away at sea, and having deducted the cost of the mason's board and lodgings from the total cost, she found she had only paid 4d for the whole castle.

It consists of a...

A tower house with rounded corners built in 1450 by Dermot MacCarthy, Lord of Munster.
The top is modern. There is an ogee-headed window in the third floor. In 1641 it was garrisoned in support of Charles 1.

About 1643 additions were made to the castle, and several fireplaces were inserted with the monogram 'W' - the Wallis family who owned it till the end of the 19th century.

It was again garrisoned by the Fenian rising of 1867, and repaired in the last century by Lady...

It is an L-shaped tower with a fine fireplace on the first floor and three-and-four-mullioned windows.
At a later stage the eastern portion with its finely moulded gate was added to form a bawn to the east of the tower.

It suffered much in the Rebellion of 1641, when it was taken from the O'Callaghans and granted to Sir Richard Kyrle, and later it was sold to Richard Newman of Cork.

It was restored after 1694 by Dillon Newman, after whose death it was used to garrison sold...

The Blarney Stone may have imparted the gift of eloquence but it did not necessarily bring good fortune. The MacCarthys forfeited their castle in the Williamite War and it was later acquired by the St. John Jefferyes family. In the 18th century James St. John Jefferys built a fanciful Georgian Gothic mansion attached to the old castle. But the house burned down and was never rebuilt.

Instead in 1874 a Scottish baronial mansion was built nearby overlooking Blarney Lake. The house i...

Kinsale can easily claim its place amongst Ireland's most historic locations for this has been a centre of population, commerce, trade and fishing far beyond memory and record.

In its earliest days the estuary of the Bandon River gave it great importance as the river is tidal as far as Innishannon and water transport was dominant until the 18th Century. The estuary also provided excellent anchorage for ancient shipping which went in peril of the vagaries of the weather.

The t...

A 13th century castle built by the De Barrys, possibly by David Oge de Barry. it is a large square in shape, with rounded turrets at each corner.
The entrance was through the south wall where there is a large oblong tower with a long passage which was closed by a heavy door and which possibly had a portcullis.

This tower was heavily modified in the 15th or 16th century. Opposite it, in the north wall, there is another square tower. Buildings were undoubtedly built agains the int...

A castle probably built by Sir Thomas Norreys who died in 1599. It is a long rectangular building with polygonal turrets (one incorporating a staircase) at the corners of the north wall. Wings project from the centre of the north and south walls, the northern one containing the entrance with a finely moulded doorway.

The windows are mullioned and have holes for muskets below them. The castle was besieged by Mountgarrett in 1642, but Jephson (who had married Sir Thomas Norrey's only da...

The kernel of the castle is a stout mid-13th century keep, almost square in plan and with walls more than 6 feet thick. The upper floors were originally made of wood, and the holes for the massive beams supporting them are still visible in the walls.

The keep is protected by an irregularly shaped curtain wall, and the corners of the stretch overlooking the river are further fortified by round turrets.

On the landward side, the gate-house of the 13th century castle was incorpor...

The castle is rectangular in shape with massive square towers at each corner. The main block has four storeys, the towers have five. There is a fine Renaissance door in the first floor on the north side and a more traditional pointed door on the ground floor on the south side.

The flat 'Burgundian' arch is a feature of the ground-floor windows, while those on the upper storey and Tudor with two or three mullion. The castle has a remarkable number of well-preserved fireplaces.

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