castles historical ireland

It had a vault over the second storey and a passage-way around the top. In an adjoining garden there are remains of a bawn wall with slits for arrows or guns at the corner. The original 'Black Castle' was built here by Hugh de Lacy in 1180. This was superseded by a Carmelite Friary founded in 1260-70. The present castle is said to have been built by Sir Edward Bellingham in 1547. The site was long held by the Kavanaghs and the Butlers, and was also occupied by Sir Peter Carew and the Bagena...

The town was founded by the Norse early in the 10th century, but by the end of the century of Irish under Brian Boru captured it. The O'Briens had already made it their own capital by 1100. In 1175 Raymond Le Gros took the town for a time, though he had to relinquish it shortly afterwards. But by 1200 the Normans were back again, and with few interruptions held it until the Confederate Catholics captured it in 1642. The Cromwellians took it in 1651.

In October 1691 the Williamites de...

The ruins of a 13th century castle built by the de Burgos. The tower, which is three storeys high and has very thick walls, stands at the corner of a roughly square enclosure surrounded by a wall. The entrance to this enclosure is flanked by massive semicircular turrets....

The castle is first mentioned in 1544 in connection with internecine wars between the sons of MacSweeney Doe. Wrecked sailors from the Spanish Armada were granted refuge here in 1588. By 1600 it had been taken over by Eoghan Og MacSweeny, an ally of the English, who was unsuccessfully besieged there by his brother Rory in 1601. Red Hugh O'Donnell attacked the castle unsuccessfully in 1601, but shortly afterwards the castle was granted by the Crown to Rory O'Donnell. Taken again by the MacSwe...

In 1429 King Henry VI promised a grant of £10 to every one of his subjects who built a castle 20 feet long, 16 feet wide and 40 feet high before 1439 in Counties Dublin, Meath, Kildare and Louth. As this castle roughly conforms to these measurements, it is quite probable that it is one of these '£10 castles'.

There are 3 storeys, of which the ground floor is vaulted. The corners of the castle are rounded, and a projecting tower at the south-western corner contained the spiral stairc...

Carrickfergus Castle the finest best preserved Norman castle in Ireland, dominates the town. John de Courcy, first Earl of Ulster, built the castle in the late 12th century, and for five centuries thereafter it was the seat of English power in the North. After serving as a prison in the 18th century, the castle was used as a magazine and armoury until 1928. Today life-like models depict stirring events in its 800-year history.

De Courcy also built the parish church of St. Nicholas,...

When built in the mid 13th century, the castle consisted of a strong rectangular, two-storey tower with reinforced corners and a stout irregularly shaped curtain wall with rounded corner towers. Only fragments survive of the curtain wall, which was further defended outside by a rock-cut ditch, from which stone was quarried for the construction of the castle.

The fortress was stormed by the Irish in 1260 and again in 1375, but also by Edward Bruce in 1316. To make it more easily defend...

The impressive castle at Portumna was the seat of the Clanricarde Burkes, the most important landowners in County Galway. It was completed in 1617 by Richard Burke, the 4th Earl of Clanricarde, but was destroyed by fire in 1826.
The Office of Public Works has been involved in its restoration in recent times. It's a large building, rectangular in shape, with four square towers at the corners. It was one of the first buildings in Ireland with Renaissance features and is also noted for the...

This castle dates to at least 1230 when history first mentions it. It contains an interesting tower whose 11 feet thick walls are polygonal on the outside and round on the inside. About 30-40 feet of this tower remain. The remains of a curtain wall and its battlements and the bailey are also present. Nearby there is a ringfort, giving a sense of continuity throughout history to the area....

Remains of a castle built by the Wogans who came to Ireland with Henry 11. The castle is mentioned in 1454 when it was attacked by another branch of the Wogan family. It was fortified in 1641, but surrendered to General Mant in the following year, when Nicholas Wogan was outlawed for treason. The main surviving free-standing structure is nothing but the two-storey gatehouse leading to the enclosure in which the castle stood. It has a mullioned window in the east wall. It possibly dates to th...