carrick on suir castle

The castle originally consisted of two or possibly four square towers surrounding a square enclosure built around 1450 beside the River Suir. Thomas, Earl of Ormond, added on a mansion of the north side for Queen Elizabeth in 1568 and subsequent years. It is the best example in the country of an Elizabethan mansion.

Portraits of Queen Elizabeth and Ormond may be seen above the side doors of the entrance passage. On the western portion of the ground floor there is a room with stucco medallions bearing heraldic motifs of the Ormond family (lion, eagle etc.). Above this room on the first floor are similar stucco panels with the arms of T(homas) Earl of O(rmond) and his motto 'Come les Trouve'. Beside this room is the great hall stretching almost the whole length of the building and decorated in stucco all around the top with representations of Queen Elizabeth flanked by Equity and Justice.

A reconstructed section of the ceiling shows what the whole must have originally been like.