castle matrix

This Castle was built on a sanctuary of the Celtic Goddess of love and poetry, Matres. The square castle was built by the 7th Earl of Desmond in the mid 15th century. It has entered the history books several times. It was the place were Edmund Spenser and Walter Raleigh first met and is said to have inspired ‘The Faerie Queene’.

It was owned by the family of Robet Southwell, the metaphysical poet and is linked to the journey of the two Wesleyite converts who founded the first Methodist church in the US.