castles historical ireland

Audley's Castle is a 15th century tower-house which retains the name of a 16th century owner, John Audley. It is a three-storey tower with the south-east doorway on the ground floor protected by two flanking towers, and with a stone vault - with marks of its original wicker centring - roofing the first floor rather than the ground floor, which would be more usual. The tower stood in the northern corner of a bawn, now reduced to its foundations, but whose walls would have originally protected...

The ruins of 13th century tower house stand at the foot of the famed Knockma. It was built by the Hacketts, a Norman family who established themselves along the east side of Lough Corrib, having driven the O' Flahertys across the lake to Connemara. The Kirwans, one of the tribes of Galway settled there in the 15th century....

Within the grounds of the Servite Monastery in Benburb are the remains of one of the more dramatically sited of all inland monuments in Northern Ireland. Its cliff-site controlling the crossing of the River Blackwater had been fortified by Shane O'Neill during the course of the 16th century, but what remains on the site is a castle built after the defeat of Gaelic opposition, when the new planters were staking their claim to the lands which James I had granted to them. By building this castle...

On the far side of Liscannor Bay, 5 km north-west of Lahinch. It is a small fishing village. Kilmacreehy, or St. Macreehy's Church, 1.5 km east of Liscannor, is a medieval parish church, with nave and chancel. It was built in the early 12th century, on the site of a famous school founded by St. Macreehy in the 6th century.

The castle ruin in the village, built by the O'Connors, became an O'Brien stronghold and was occupied by Sir Turlough O'Brien during the threatened invasion at the...

The castle itself was built of a contrastingly dark basalt by Colla Dubh MacDonnell in 1547. The most prominent feature is the two-storey gabled tower guarding the entrance to a walled enclosure occupying much of the southern half of the island.

The castle was taken and partially destroyed by the English in 1555, but it remained in use for some considerable time afterwards. The walk up and down the steep pathway leading to the castle affords a wonderful panorama of Rathlin Island, wit...

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 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...

This is one of the few castles in Ireland which is round. It was built by the Purcells in the 16th century. The walls splay at the bottom. Of the two ceilings which are preserved, one is a flat corbelled ceiling, the other is vaulted. The castle has 5 storeys, turrets, a broken fireplace in the 3rd storey, a 'murder hole' above the door to drop things on unwelcome intruders, and a small hole for muskets at one window....

The castle consists of a square central courtyard surrounded by walls which are eight feet thick and twenty feet high, with square towers projecting from three sides. On the fourth side is the gate with a pointed arch and a groove for the portcullis. The interior of the castle is bare, but originally there were two-storey structures built up against the inside walls. However, few traces of these remain, and local tradition explains this by saying that the castle was never finished. There is...

It is square in plan, but has an L-shaped addition to guard the entrance. Access is gained directly to the ground floor, and a stairway leads up immediately to the main first-floor chamber, which is defended by a murder hole in the vault above. Access to the upper floors was gained by a spiral staircase within the walls. The tower was probably built by a member of the Savage family in the 16th century, and in 1635 Patrick Savage's brother-in-law, Sir James Montgomery of Rosemount, repaired t...