castles historical ireland

The castle was founded by Roger de Peppard in 1207, but much of the present building does not go back beyond the 15th century. In the 15th and 16th centuries it was used for attacks on Ulster, and two English Lord Deputies, Stanley (1414) and the White Earl of Ormond (1452), died here on such expeditions. After the Restoration, it was granted to Theobald Taffe, Earl of Carlingford....

Thoor Ballylee Castle is a four storey tower dating back to the 16th century, beautifully situated beside a stream. There was much to enchant William Butler Yeats on his first visit to Ballylee in 1885: the old square castle, the little river and the legend of a most beautiful local woman 'Mary Hynes, the Shining Flower of Ballylee.
He eventually bought the medieval tower, which was built by the Norman de Burgo family, with a cottage and garden for the grand sum of IR35.00 in 1916. The...

The Harry Avery who gave his name to the castle was Henry Aimbreidh O'Neill, who died in 1392. The castle, commanding the valley of the River Derg close to Newtownstewart, was probably - though not certainly - built by him, and is unusual in being a stone castle located within what was Gaelic Ulster at the time. Even more curious are the two towers visible from afar which give the impression of being a gate-tower of an earlier century guarding the access to the castle ward behind them (like th...

Tullynally has been the seat of the Pakenhams, later Earls of Longford, for over 300 years. Set in beautiful parkland and woods adjoining Lough Derravaragh, it is now probably the largest castle in Ireland still lived in as the family home; a forest of towers and turrets nearly a quarter of a mile round....

Family seat of the O'Neills at Clanaboy. The Demesne and nature reserve is one of the most beautiful and well maintained in Ireland. Bookings by appointment....

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 south end of the castle is a 15th or 16th century tower-house with rounded corners. It has 4 storeys, with vaults on the first and third storeys. In the 17th century, windows and a fine fireplace with initials of one of the Purcell family were inserted.

In the first half of the 17th century the Purcells added the northern part, with towers at opposite corners. It was lighted by mullioned windows, and a number of fireplaces are still retained in its walls. Col Nicholas Purcell, t...

Drimnagh Castle was, until 1954 one of the oldest continually inhabited Castles in Ireland, and is an outstanding example of an old feudal stronghold.

It is the only Irish castle still to be surrounded by a flooded moat, a very picturesque feature, described in 1780 as a "very deep ditch of water supplied from the Green Hills". It is now stocked with fish.

The castle, built of local grey limestone, consists of a restored Great Hall and medieval undercroft, a tall battlement tower...

The castle is said to have been built in 1181 by Hugh de Lacy, Lord of Meath, for his brother-in-law, Sir Gilbert de Nugent, who resided in it for some time before building the neighbouring castle of Clonyn. But the castle was probably built in the early 13th century.

It was originally square in plan with four rounded turrets at the corner but only the western half of the castle remains, with two of the rounded turrets. The lower portion is now used as a shop store; the upper portion...

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...