Category Archives: Irish Castle

Constantly an Object of Contention


‘The castle of Ballintober, the chief seat of the O’Conors, in which Felim [Felim Geancach O’Connor King of Connaught, 1406–1474] spent most of his time, deserves more than a passing notice. This castle…was one of the principal strongholds of the Irish and does not appear to have ever been for any considerable length of time in the possession of the English. No record remains to show when it was first erected. According to tradition, it dates back to the time of Cathal Crovedearg, and to the reign of King John. It is first mentioned in the Irish annals about a century later, and between that time and the period at which we have now arrived it underwent many vicissitudes. It was frequently besieged, often partially destroyed, sometimes burned, then restored, and was constantly an object of contention between the rival chiefs…’ 





‘…The plan of the castle consisted of a quadrangular enclosure, varying from 277 to 264 feet in length, and from 245 to 247 feet in breadth.  It was defended by strong towers at each angle, and by two others, one at each side of the grand entrance, which opened upon an esplanade at the end of the ridge towards the east. The whole was surrounded by a broad fosse. On the south and to the east, the fosse was constructed to retain water; and even to the present day, on the former side, it accomplishes this purpose, and enough of water remains to show the object of its construction. On the two opposite sides, the ditches, deep, broad and cut into the rock, are at present quite dry; but as they lie below the level of the water, these also could on occasion be flooded. There appears to have been once a draw-bridge from the postern gate opening out on the crest of the ridge.
The grand towers are all polygonal, but there is a want of symmetry in their construction, no two agreeing in the number and length of their sides. The south-west tower presents six faces on the exterior, the north-west five, the north-east seven and the south-east six. The sides of the north-west tower are respectively in length, beginning at the west curtain, 22 ft 6 in; 9 ft 9 in; 11 ft; and 11 ft 7 in.
The south-east tower is about 30 feet in breadth, and it and all the towers are elongated towards the interior of the great court. The towers, especially the two to the west, had very substantial walls, through which, in the lower parts, there were loop-holes for defence; the upper stories being furnished with windows of habitable apartments. The interior of each has been for a long time in a ruinous state, the two to the east being completely gutted. In the north-west tower, some doorways, with lancets and flatly-pointed arches, in very pleasing proportion, remain in tolerable preservation; and a fire-place and chimney-piece, with arms bearing the date 1629, appear on the walls of the third story, but the floors of the upper stories have altogether disappeared…’





‘…From the earliest date at which any reference is made to it in history until its destruction as a habitable residence at the end of the seventeenth century, Ballintober castle appears to have been, with some interruptions, in the possession of the O’Conors, and their principal stronghold. When they divided into the two septs of O’Conor Don and O’Conor Roe, it became the residence of the former. In 1526 we read that Lord Kildare took the castles of Ballintober and Castlerea, and handed them over to O’Conor Roe, from whom they were taken the following year by O’Conor Don, aided by O’Donnell.
In 1571 Sir Edward Fytton, Governor of Connaught, again took the castles of Ballintober and Castlerea, and raised the latter to the ground, and Ballintober apparently remained in the hands of the English until the year 1581, when the Annals of Loch Cé inform us that “Ballintober, which the Saxons had, was given to Dualtach, son of Toole O’Conor.” This Dualtach was the nephew of O’Conor Don, and had set up in rivalry to him. Apparently the castle did not long remain in Dualtach’s possession as shortly after we find O’Conor Don again in occupation, and there he died in 1585. In this same year the castle and the lands adjoining it were surrendered to Queen Elizabeth by his son and successor Hugh O’Conor Don, who received them back under patent from the English sovereign. In 1598, the walls of the castle were battered down by O’Donnell, who having defeated the English at the Battle of the Curlieus, attacked O’Conor Don, and obliged him to surrender. Whether the castle was ever fully restored is doubtful; but as it appears from an ancient MS in the Ashburnham collection that a considerable portion of it was rebuilt by Sir Hugh O’Conor after O’Donnell’s attack, it is more than probable that he completely restored it…Charles O’Conor, the grandson of this Sir Hugh, was the last of the O’Conors who resided at Ballintober. Probably when he left it, it ceased to be inhabited, and became the ruin into which pillagers for well-dressed stones speedily converted it.’ 


Extracts from The O’Conors of Connaught: An Historical Memoir by Charles Owen O’Conor Don (Dublin, 1891) 

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Having No Equal in the Three Kingdoms


Visiting Kilkenny Castle in 1699, English bookseller John Dunton enthused over the building’s gallery, writing that ‘for length, variety of gilded chairs, and the curious pictures that adorn it, has no equal in the three kingdoms, and perhaps not in Europe; so that this castle may properly be called the Elisium of Ireland.’ Were Dunton somehow to return to Kilkenny today, he would likely find the place unrecognisable, but would still judge the castle gallery as having no equal, certainly not in this country. 





The origins of Kilkenny Castle date back to the late-12th century when a defensive structure was erected on a site high above an important fording point on the river Nore. Likely of wood, it was replaced by a stone building around 1260, a square-shaped castle with a tower at each corner, three of which remain. Passing through various hands, it was seized by the English crown and sold to the Butlers in 1391: hitherto the family’s main base had been at Gowran, some ten miles to the east. Thereafter, Kilkenny became the centre of Butler operations, although the castle went through several periods of neglect. In the second half of the 16th century, for example, Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond, preferred to concentrate his energies on enhancing another Butler property in Carrick-on-Suir (see All that is Fantastically Eccentric in Architecture « The Irish Aesthete). However, his great-nephew James Butler, first Duke of Ormond and the latter’s wife Elizabeth Preston, lavished attention on Kilkenny Castle, creating the building so admired by Dunton at the end of the 17th century. 




An ardent royalist, James Butler went into exile in France with Charles II. Following the latter’s restoration in 1660, Butler was created Duke of Ormond, recovered his Irish estates and became the country’s Lord Lieutenant. While he and his wife spent much time in Dublin, they also turned their attention to the ancestral castle in Kilkenny where, inspired by what they had seen during their time in mainland Europe, they transformed the building and its grounds in the style of a French château. The garden was laid out in the fashionable Baroque manner, with serried lines of trees, statuary and fountains, and a classical banqueting house. Inside, an inventory made for the couple’s heir, the second duke, reveals that the castle held sets of tapestries, Turkey rugs and looking glasses, Dutch and Indian furniture and a huge collection of more than 500 paintings, the largest in the country with work by Dutch, French, Italian and English artists. Some of these items survive to the present day: six 17th century Dutch tapestries, part of a larger series telling the story of Decius Mus, a Roman Consul, can be seen in one of the rooms, while elsewhere several painted wooden panels carved with ribands and pomegranates are on display. While many visitors to the castle were awed by this display, not everyone felt the same way. In November 1709 Dr Thomas Molyneux arrived in the town and went to look at the building. While acknowledging that it was handsomely situated above the Nore, Molyneux declared that inside ‘there is not one handsome or noble apartment. The Rooms are Darke and the stairs mighty ugly.’ He was also critical of recent alterations to the main structure, thinking the handsome classical entrance from the Parade, along with a new range of buildings all ‘mighty ugly, crooked, and very expensive.’ 





Kilkenny Castle, as seen today, is primarily a 19th century construct. For much of the previous century, it had, once more, been little used and allowed to fall into a poor condition: by 1747, it was described as being like that of ‘a weather-beaten ship in a storm after a long voyage with all her cargo thrown overboard.’ Around 1770, the south wall of the old castle, which had already been badly damaged during the Confederate Wars of the early 1650s, was demolished, thereby breaking the previously enclosed courtyard and opening views to the parkland. Internally, other radical changes took place. The present Picture Gallery, 150 feet long and the finest surviving example of its kind in Ireland, was commissioned in 1826 by James Butler, first Marquess of Ormonde from local architect William Robertson, with further changes made in the 1860s by the firm of Deane and Woodward. Elsewhere, a suite of reception rooms on the first floor continues to reflect their mid-19th century decoration, with walls covered in French silk poplin originally made by Prelle of Lyons, on which are hanging paintings many of which are part of the original Butler family collection. The decoration here is based on photographs showing how the rooms looked in the 1890s. The Butler Marquesses of Ormonde remained in ownership, if not in occupation, of Kilkenny Castle until 1967 when the seventh and last holder of the title sold it for a nominal sum; many of the contents had already been dispersed at auction some 30 years earlier. Today the castle and grounds are owned by the Irish State and managed by the Office of Public Works which has gradually been restoring more of the interior which can be viewed by visitors. 


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The Irish Sale of the Century



From the mid-1970s through to the early 1980s a series of country house contents auctions took place in Ireland, beginning with that held at Malahide Castle in May 1976. One of the last during that particular spate took place at Luttrellstown, County Dublin in September 1983. Luttrellstown has featured here before (see Luttrellstown Castle « The Irish Aesthete). The estate here dates back to c.1210 when it had been granted by King John to Sir Geoffrey de Luterel. Two centuries later the original castle was constructed and remained in the hands of the Luttrells until 1800 when sold to Luke White, who had made his fortune operating a lottery. White and his descendants were responsible for giving the house much of its external appearance as a frothy Gothick fancy, and they continued to occupy it until the early 1920s when it was once more put on the market. In November 1927 Aileen Guinness married the Hon Brinsley Plunket and as a wedding present her father Ernest Guinness presented the bride with  Luttrellstown Castle.





During the 14 years of their marriage, the Plunkets entertained extensively at Luttrellstown. However, following their divorce in 1940, the property’s chatelaine moved to the United States, only returning to this side of the Atlantic after the conclusion of the Second World War. Then, following her father’s death in March 1949, she embarked on a thorough restoration and transformation of the castle. In this enterprise, she was assisted by English architect and interior designer Felix Harbord, who also worked with Aileen Plunket’s sister, Maureen, Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava, at Clandeboye, County Down. At Luttrellstown, Harbord appears to have perfectly understood his client’s fondness for the dramatic and for unexpected juxtapositions. Hence the interiors were filled with treasures that had come from a diverse range of sources. The white marble chimneypiece in the ballroom, likely the work of Sir Henry Cheere, came from England, as did the painted ceiling by Thornhill installed in the staircase hall. The dining room was given Adamesque plasterwork and a ceiling by 18th century artist Jacob de Wit, and the Grisaille Room created to hold a series of nine panels by the Flemish painter Peter de Gree, originally made in 1788 for the Oriel Temple, County Louth. In this setting, Luttrellstown’s owner entertained frequently and lavishly. As late as 1966, when many other Irish houses had been forced to cut back on hospitality, Mark Bence-Jones could report, ‘Mrs Plunket entertains in the grand manner, giving large dinner parties, dances and balls; she invites people from all walks of life in Ireland together with many friends from abroad.’ He also noted that ‘what seems like an army of footmen, something very rare in Ireland, adds to the splendour.’





In 1983, Aileen Plunket, by then aged 79, decided to sell both Luttrellstown Castle and its contents: the latter were dispersed in a three-day auction held that September by Christie’s. Described by the late Desmond FitzGerald, Knight of Glin as the Irish Sale of the Century, the event attracted considerable publicity, and many overseas buyers,  eager to see what bargains might be found. In the event, there were no bargains as many lots went for much higher sums than their estimates. On the first day, for example, a pair of George II white painted side tables, expected to fetch £25-38,000, eventually went for £110,000. A pair of Italian gilt-bronze and crystal candelabra made £65,000, more than six times their estimate, while a mid-18th century giltwood stool fetched £28,000, more than nine times the estimate. A rare Russian tapestry carpet made for Tsar Nicholas I in 1835 went for £75,000 which was double its estimate: seemingly the underbidder on this lot was David Rockefeller. On the other hand, a suite of painted Louis XV furniture which may – or may not – have been made for the Château de Maintenon, failed to make the expected £170,000, selling for £134,000. On the second day of the auction, the focus was on paintings such as a set of four hunting scenes by Jacob van Strij (£69,120), The Mystic Marriage by Jan Brueghel II (£30,240)  and a portrait of Louise de Keroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth by Henri Gascars which fetched £27,000: Aileen Plunket had bought the picture eight years earlier at the Malahide Castle sale for £9,500. On the third day, books, porcelain, glass and so forth. With approximately one third of the buyers being Irish and the rest of the bidders coming from overseas, in total, the auction made a sum just shy of £3 million. Soon afterwards it was announced that the castle and 570 acre demesne had been sold for just over £3 million. Aileen Plunket then moved to England where she lived until her death in 1999. As for Luttrellstown Castle, it has since become a wedding and events venue (a certain well-known English former footballer and his wife were married there in 1999). 


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King John was not a Good Man


‘King John was not a good man –
He had his little ways.
And sometimes no one spoke to him
For days and days and days…’
From King John’s Christmas by A.A. Milne

Historic buildings tend to attract myths, as anyone who has consulted the Dúchas national folklore collection can confirm. As an example, the number of properties in Ireland which Oliver Cromwell is held responsible for destroying would have required him to spend considerably longer than the nine months he did in this country. Similarly, the construction of a large number of Anglo-Norman castles here are often attributed to King John, although he only and briefly visited Ireland twice: the first time in 1185 when, as Lord of Ireland, he failed both to strengthen the administration of his lordship and to bring Norman colonists like Hugh de Lacy under royal control. His second visit in 1210, by which time he had become King of England, was more successful but very short, lasting two months. Nevertheless, in popular memory he is held responsible for commissioning many castles around the country, including that in Athenry, County Galway, even though he never made it to this part of the island and the castle was built some 20 years after his death in 1216.




Seemingly the earliest recorded association between Athenry Castle and King John can be found in John Dunton’s Teague Land: or A Merry Ramble to the Wild Irish published in 1698. According to Dunton, ‘When King John came into Ireland to reduce some of his rebellious people here, he built the town of Athenry, and environed it with a good stone wall to be a curb upon them in those parts.’ This association with the long-deceased monarch then became embedded in local mythology and when the peripatetic German Prince Hermann von Puckler-Muskau visited Athenry in 1828, after lamenting the wretched state of the town, he wrote that ‘Here stood a rich abbey, now overgrown with ivy, the arches which once protected the sanctuary lie in fragments amid the unsheltered altars and tombstones. Further on is a castle with walls ten feet thick, in which King John held his court of justice when he came over to Ireland.’ Likewise, a decade later the historian John O’Donovan, who worked in the Topographical Department of the first Ordnance Survey decided that Athenry seems to have been built by King John in the year 1211 to put down the Hy-Briuin, Hy-many and Hy-Fiachrach Aidhne, three most ferocious Connachtan tribes.’ On the other hand, the ever-reliable Samuel Lewis in his Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (1837) noted that Athenry was ‘the first town established by the De Burgos and Berminghams, the Anglo-Norman invaders of Connaught, and at a remote period was surrounded by walls, and became a place of importance.’ 




Meyler de Bermingham was the great-grandson of Robert de Bermingham, an Anglo-Norman knight who had arrived in Ireland in the early 1170s and settled in what is now County Offaly. In the 1230s, Meyler and his father Peter de Bermingham participated in the Norman invasion of Connaught. As part of this, the former built a castle by a fording point on the river Clarin at a spot known as Áth na Rí (Ford of the Kings), from which derives the name Athenry. As for the castle, set inside enclosure walls, it is a large three storey rectangular hall-keep with base-batter, with a basement that would have been used for storage, a great hall on the first floor and an attic above. The battlements date from the 13th century as do the arrowslits in the merlons. In the 15th century, these parapets were incorporated into gables at the north and south ends for a new roof. When first built, the castle’s entrance was at first-floor level, accessed via an external wooden stairs. Carvings on the exterior of the doorcase and inside two of the window openings feature floral motifs in a local style, transitional between Romanesque and Gothic and known as the ‘School of the West.’ The castle appears to have been abandoned in the 16th century and old photographs show it as a roofless ruin. However, in 1991, the Office of Public Works initiated restoration work on the site and it is now open to visitors during the spring and summer periods.


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A Glebe House and a Castle



After last Monday’s post about the former 19th century rectory outside Rathkeale, County Limerick (see A Glebe House and a Castle « The Irish Aesthete) here are some images of its predecessor, located to the immediate west of Holy Trinity Church and to the south of the river Deel, on the outskirts of the town. A four-storey, late-medieval tower house, the building is now called Glebe Castle, thereby indicating its original function which presumably it retained until the new clerical residence was constructed in 1819. But seemingly it was also known as Chancellor’s Castle, since the rector of Rathkeale was also Chancellor of the Diocese of Limerick. By the time that Samuel Lewis published his Topographical Survey of Ireland in 1837, Glebe Castle had become home to the Rev. CT Coghlan, rector of the neighbouring parish of Kilscannel. At some unknown date, a single-storey block was added to east side of the castle, but more recently the present house has been built here. 



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A Picturesque Eye Catcher




After Monday’s post about Loughton, County Offaly, here is an earlier dwelling found within the demesne. Standing on raised ground to the immediate south of the main house and evidently retained as a romantic eye-catcher, this is a four storey tower house likely dating from the early 17th century when constructed for the then-dominant O’Carroll family. Circular bartizans remain at the top of the building on the south-west and north-east corners, with an internal staircase beginning on the east wall before turning 90 degrees and ascending up the north. A large fireplace opening also remains on the east side of the now-roofless castle.




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A Noble and Commanding Appearance


‘The history of Mourne is associated with that of the Castle of Greencastle – one of the finest specimens of Anglo-Norman architecture military architecture in the County of Down – which constitutes such an important feature in the scenery of that coast, from every point of which it presents a noble and commanding appearance. It was erected by the early English invaders to guard the entrance to the Lough of Carlingford and to secure a line of correspondence between the Pale and their outlying possessions in Lecale.’
From An Historical Account of the Diocese of Down and Connor by the Rev. James O’Laverty (Dublin, 1878)




‘Greencastle, situated in the barony of Mourne, County Down, province of Ulster. It stands upon a gut or inlet of the sea and was reputed a strong castle, fortified by the Burghs, earls of Ulster and lords of Connaught. It was remarkable for two eminent marriages celebrated here in 1312; one between Maurice Fitzthomas and Catherine, daughter to the Earl of Ulster, on the 5th of August, and the other between Thomas Fitz-John and another daughter of the said earl, on the 16th of the same month. It was destroyed by the Irish, A.D. 1643, but soon after repaired and better fortified. Green Castle and the Castle of Carlingford, appear by a record, 1 Henry IV, to have been governed by one constable, the better to secure a communication between the English pale of the County Louth and the settlements of the English in Lecale and those northern parts; and Stephen Gernon was constable of both, for which he had a salary of 20l. per annum for Green Castle and 5l. for Carlingford. In 1495, it was thought to be a place of such importance to the crown, that no person, but of English birth was declared capable of being constable of it.’
From An Improved Topographical and Historical Hibernian Gazetteer, by the Rev. H Hansbrow (Dublin, 1835)




‘The castle stands upon an elevated rock, about a quarter of a mile from the sea. The walls are double, and the outer ones is looped at regular distances for archers, with passages to each floor. The central building is strengthened and protected by four square flanking towers at the corners, with a spiral staircase in each. Upon gaining the battlements, a beautiful view of the Lough scenery is obtained; the most striking object, however, is the Castle of Carlingford, which looks to great advantage from this point.
Green Castle rendered important services in the rebellion of 1641. It served not only to protect the Protestants of the district, but exercised considerable influence in keeping the insurrection in check. A part of this old Castle is now in occupation, and the rest turned into out-offices for cattle.’
From Tours in Ulster: A Handbook to the Antiquities and Scenery by J.B. Doyle (Dublin, 1855)


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Showing What Can be Done


Forty years ago, in 1985, the artist and architectural historian Peter Pearson got in touch with the Congregation of Christian Brothers, a religious order which had come to own Drimnagh Castle, once surrounded by forest but by then almost lost in Dublin suburban housing. In John D’Alton’s History of the County of Dublin (1838), the building is described as occupying ‘a spot of much romantic beauty, overlooking at the east the city and bay, and at north, the Park, Castleknock and Clondalkin, while towards the south the view is bounded by the mountains of the county of Dublin, presenting a dark and solemn aspect, congenial to the decaying splendour of the edifice.’ Alas, the same romantic views are no longer to be found today. The building’s history dates back to 1215 when the lands of Drimnagh and Terenure were granted by King John to Hugh de Berneval and when the latter died without issue, these grants were passed to his brother Reginald, whose descendants, their name eventually becoming Barnewall, came to be one of the most significant families in this part of the country: Raymond Barnewall, 21st Baron Trimlestown died last year and, having no known heirs, so ended one of the oldest Irish titles, dating back to 1461 (see Fallen Out of Use « The Irish Aesthete). The Barnewalls remained in the castle until the first decade of the 17th century when Elizabeth Barnewall, heiress to the property, married a cousin, James Barnewall of Bremore (see A Work in Progress « The Irish Aesthete) after which Drimnagh was let on a 99-year least to Sir Adam Loftus, nephew and namesake of the Archbishop of Dublin who had been responsible for building Rathfarnham Castle just a few miles to the south-east (see A Whiter Shade of Pale « The Irish Aesthete). A century later, however, Drimnagh Castle – like Bremore Castle – was sold to Henry Perry, Earl of Shelburne and so passed into the ownership of the Marquesses of Lansdowne. Both buildings were let to a succession of tenants, in the case of Drimnagh Castle until 1904 when it was bought by a successful dairy farmer and Dublin City councillor, Joseph Hatch. He undertook considerable restoration work on the property, used by his family as a summer residence until the 1950s when it passed into the possession of the Christian Brothers. While the order initially used the castle as a school, they subsequently moved into a purpose-built establishment on the land. As a result, the old building was left unoccupied (except for a collection of fowl kept there by one member of the religious community) and gradually fell into disrepair. Its future looked uncertain and, like so many other old properties in the greater Dublin region, Drimagh Castle might have been lost had not Peter Pearson intervened. 






The evolution of Drimnagh Castle from its origins into what can be seen today is complicated and, on more than one occasion, unclear. As was so often the case, the building likely began as a wooden structure, this in due course replaced by stone. The oldest part of the castle is a stocky keep access to which is through a single, low Gothic door on the east side with a typical murder hole directly above. This entrance leads to an undercroft, notable for retaining reedmarks on its vaulted ceiling; analysis of these might be able to confirm a date for when the keep was constructed. In the 18th century, this space was converted into a kitchen, with the insertion of a number of ovens and a large open fireplace. Stone steps at the north and south ends of the undercroft lead to the great hall immediately above. To the immediate north and rising one storey higher, the tower and gatehouse are thought to have been added in the 16th century. Further substantial changes occurred during the 18th century when many of the building’s windows were made larger so as to bring more light into the rooms. On the east side an external stone staircase was added giving direct access to the great hall through a cut-limestone doorcase. It may be that the moat, a parallelogram and something of a rarity among surviving Irish castles, similarly dates from the 18th century when the property was responsible for a number of mills in the area, their mechanism driven by the water which then fed into the river Camac. In one corner of the grounds is a little square battlemented folly, again likely an addition from the Georgian period: its west face overlooking the moat incorporates a late medieval window and later granite doorcase with arched light above, both of which appear to have come from elsewhere. When the Hatches took over the castle in the early 1900s, they made further changes to the buildings, not least inserting brick pediments above many windows and doors, as well as taking out many of the 18th century sash windows. They also converted a 17th century barn into a set of stables and rebuilt the coach house on the opposite side of the rear courtyard, giving its roofline the same curved gables seen on the castle roofline.






When Peter Pearson first approached the Christian Brothers 40 years ago about undertaking work on Drimnagh Castle, the building was in a pitiful state and looked unlikely to have any viable future. Nevertheless, thanks to a grant of £3,000 from Dublin Corporation and assisted by a number of state and charitable agencies as well as a voluntary local committee, work began on the site in 1986. Writing in the Irish Arts Review three years ago, Pearson has described what followed as employing the Italian concept of restauro: ‘which implies both conservation of existing structure and appropriate replacement of elements beyond repair. It implies an artistic rather than a moralistic approach to giving old buildings new life and it means that there has to be an element of compromise if historic buildings are to live on with new uses.’ It is unlikely that were such a project to be initiated today that such an approach would necessarily be permitted, but had it not been adopted at the time, then most probably Drimnagh Castle would no longer stand today. Inevitably, compromise meant not all features of the building’s history could be represented. The best example of this is the great hall which, in the 18th century, had been split into two reception rooms reached via a panelled staircase. The inevitable question arose: ought this later intervention be retained or should the space be returned to what was believed to have been its original appearance? The latter option was chosen, but this meant a degree of conjecture since so little of the material fabric survived. What can now be seen is to a large extent new, not least the hall’s roof entirely constructed of green Irish oak and assembled on site by trainee carpenters. The same was true of the carved gallery running around the upper level of the gallery; here can be admired portrait effigies of many of those involved in the enterprise (including Pearson) which serve as trusses for the roof. The floor is covered in tiles made for the space and based on original medieval tiles found at Swords Castle, County Dublin (see Palatial « The Irish Aesthete), while the window glass was all made for the hall. Outside, in what had been an empty, neglected area of ground at the back of the site, a formal garden with parterres of box was laid out. Today on lease from the religious order and still dependent on voluntary support for its daily maintenance, Drimnagh Castle is an outstanding example of what can be achieved by persistence, dedication and imagination. As so often, much remains to be done around the building and its grounds, but 40 years after Peter Pearson first proposed the property’s rescue, it continues to deserve accolades and amply repays a visit. 

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Boldly and Picturesquely Seated



‘Dundrum Castle is usually supposed to have been erected for the Knights Templar by the renowned Sir John de Courcey, and that powerful body possessed it till the abolition of the order in the year 1313. It was afterwards granted to the Prior of Down, who held it, with a small manor adjoining, till the final suppression of religious orders; and the reversion of this house and manor, with the yearly rent of 6l. 13s. 6d. reserved out of it, was granted to Gerald, Earl of Kildare.’
From the Dublin Penny Journal, No.36, Vol.1, March 2 1833.





‘This Castle was granted to the family of Magennis; on their forfeiture, it became the property of the Earl of Ardglass, and afterwards was in the possession of the Lord Viscount Blundell; the ruins are of an irregular multangular ſorm, with a fine round tower, which is about thirty-five feet diameter in the inside.”  Thus far Mr. Archdall. In addition to which, Harris says, “When the Castle was in repair it often proved a good guard to the pass, and as often an offensive neighbour to the English planted in Lecale, according to the hands that possessed it. Anno 1517, the Earl of Kildare, then Lord Deputy, marched into Lecale, and took it by storm; it being garriſoned at that time by the Irish, who had driven out the English ſome time before. It was again possessed and repaired by the Magennises, and re-taken by the Lord Deputy Gray, with seven castles more in Lecale, anno 1538. lt afterwards got into the hands of Phelim McEver Magennis, who was obliged to yield it to the Lord Mountjoy on the 16th of June in the year 1601, It met with another fate during the progress of the war of 1641, when it was demolished by the order of Cromwell, though then garrisoned by Protestants, and has ever since been suffered to run entirely to ruin.’
From The Antiquities of Ireland, Vol.1 by Francis Grose (1791)





‘The old Castle of Dundrum, boldly and picturesquely seated on a high rock covered with verdure, commanded in the ages of warfare the entrance to the harbour — if to the inner Bay, or rather the estuary of the Blackstaff Water, the appellation may be applied. This was considered one of the finest castles erected by the first Anglo-Norman adventurers; and its ivy-mantled ruins contribute materially to the strikingly romantic features of the landscape. These ruins consist of a great circular keep or tower, with detached fragments of towers, and ruins of other outworks, and a barbican. At a little distance southward of the castle are the mouldering remains of a large mansion, partly a fortalice and partly a dwelling-house of the sort in use in the sixteenth century. From these ruins we command a wider sweep of the magnificent scenery described at Newcastle.’
From A Picturesque Handbook to Carlingford Bay by Robert Greer (1846)


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Coming to a Bad End



After Monday’s tale of Barryscourt Castle, here is another property that formerly belonged to the once-mighty Barry family: Buttevant Castle, County Cork. Thought to date back to the early 13th century, this would have been one of their first strongholds but in due course they moved their principal residence elsewhere and Buttevant fell into decline. As indeed did the Barrys. In the late 18th century the penultimate Earl of Barrymore, a close friend of the Prince of Wales, was a notorious rake, gambler and bare-knuckle boxer. His wild ways gained him the nickname of Hellgate while his younger brother Henry, who inherited the title after his sibling’s death at the age of 23, had a clubfoot and accordingly was called Cripplegate. Meanwhile, the third sibling Augustus, despite being an Anglican clergyman, became so addicted to gambling that he was known as Newgate, supposedly because this was the only debtors’ prison in which he had not spent time. And the trio’s only sister, Lady Caroline Barry, swore with such frequency and proficiency that she was called Billingsgate, after the foul-mouthed fishwives of that market. Between the four of them, they managed to dissipate their once-great estates in Ireland, including the extensive lands around Buttevant Castle, which was bought by Scottish entrepreneur John Anderson, whose son gave the building its present appearance around 1810. Occupied until the start of the last century, it was then abandoned and has since fallen into a ruinous state.



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