pallas castle

Possibly the best-preserved tower-house in a county which has many well-preserved examples. The tower is 5 storeys high, with the third storey vaulted. Beside having a guard's room, and a 'dog's hole', the ground floor has an oven which was added later.

There are a number of good fireplaces preserved on the various floors, with ahead on that of the first floor. The fourth floor has attractive mullioned windows framed in arches. The tower if surrounded by an extremely well-preserved bawn, which was entered by a two-storey gatehouse. The bawn has two towers with turrets at each corner, and has internal steps and parapets.

On the west side of the bawn is a house which was built as part of the bawn, and which had its own entrance through the bawn wall. Some buildings in the south-west corner probably date from the 19th century. The castle was built by the Burkes, possibly around 1500. In 1574 it was in the hands of Jonyck Fitzthomas Burke, but after the restoration it passed to the Nugent family, Lords of Westmeath.