Orna Mulcahy - Irish Castles

www.ardmorewaterford.com

Ruined and romantic, Ardo Castle stands on a clifftop, looking out to sea, near the pretty seaside village of Ardmore in County Waterford. Dating from the seventeenth century, its eclectic collection of towers, walls, gates, and turrets matches its string of owners and their fortunes. The first owner mentioned was a Fitzgerald, of Norman stock, whose heir, it is said, was caught stealing a gold cup and hanged. In the eighteenth century, the castle was owned by a Jeremiah Coughlan, whose wife is said to have supported her extravagant lifestyle by helping local smugglers. The ownership passed to Marshal McMahon who was President and Marshal of France in 1873. Finally, the castle was purchased by the McKenna family, who lived in it for some years until the end of the First World War, after which it was abandoned.

ASHFORD CASTLE ESTATE, CONG, COUNTY MAYO, F31 CA48

+353 94 954 6003

An awe-inducing baronial castle on Lough Corrib, close to the village of Cong, Ashford Castle was once owned by the Guinness brewing family and is now a luxury hotel with a plush, romantic interior. The earliest segment of the castle dates back to the early thirteenth century, when it was built on the edge of a monastic settlement by the de Burgo family. Defeated in battle in 1589, they lost their home to Lord Ingham, Governor of Connaught, whose family held it for over three hundred years. It was not until 1715, when the castle was acquired by the Browne family, that it became the Ashford estate, with the castle extended in the French chateau style. The castellated wings and the bridge entrance were added by the Guinness family, who acquired Ashford in the mid nineteenth century and extended the estate to 26,000 acres.

HIGH STREET, CROOM, COUNTY LIMERICK

www.limerick.ie

Askeaton Castle stands on a small island in the river Deel in County Limerick. Started in 1199 and now a ruin, it was one of the castles of the Fitzgeralds, the Earls of Desmond, who arrived with the Norman invasion but who adopted the local language, laws, and culture to become “more Irish than the Irish themselves”, it was said. The Fitzgeralds ruled Munster from this castle for several centuries, until the English forces ate away at their support and drove them out in the late 1500s. The castle was destroyed by the forces of Cromwell in 1652, when it was defended by confederate Catholic forces.

The castle has a fine banqueting hall, with interesting architectural windows built above wine cellars and kitchens, testament to the importance of entertaining to the Irish nobility. Close by are two other ruins of interest: a fourteenth-century Franciscan friary founded by the Fitzgeralds, destroyed by an English commander in 1579 after failing to take the castle itself, and the 1740 Hellfire Club, where rich men were said to have gathered for entertainments and excesses of various kinds.

GORTEENACRA, ATHENRY, COUNTY GALWAY

+353 91 844 797 | www.athenryheritagecentre.com

This is a fine restored thirteenth-century castle in the medieval walled town of Athenry, about fifteen miles from the city of Galway. The castle was built by the Anglo-Norman lord, Meyler de Bermingham, c. 1237, after he was granted lands following the Conquest of Connaught. Having built an imposing tower surrounded by defensive walls, he then set about developing the town, adding a parish church, a priory, a hospital, streets, houses, and a marketplace. By the end of the thirteenth century, Athenry was a wealthy and important market town with trading links to England and the Continent. Town walls were built in 1316 to protect the inhabitants from the warring Irish, but over the next two centuries the town declined.

also known as SPUR ROYAL CASTLE, AUGHER, COUNTY TYRONE

Augher Castle is a tower house built around 1615 by Thomas Ridgeway, a Devon man who served as Treasurer of Ireland and who assisted in the Plantation of Ulster. For this he was awarded 2000 acres of land in County Tyrone and later a title, the Earl of Londonderry. He built Augher Castle on the site of an older fortress but he didn’t spend much time there, and political ambitions found him often in London. Augher Castle was burned in 1689 by the Jacobites as the Siege of Derry was under way. It was originally a square, three-storey Plantation castle, with an unusual triangular tower in the middle of each of its sides. The castle was restored around 1832 by Sir James Richardson-Bunbury, who added two castellated wings, transforming the old castle into a Georgian mansion house. The house remains in the Richardson-Bunbury family today.

CARRIGALINE, COUNTY CORK

Situated on a cliff overlooking the Owenboy river in Carrigaline, south of Cork City, Ballea dates from the fifteenth century, when it was home to the McCarthy family. Extended in the seventeenth century by the McCarthys, the castle eventually fell into disrepair until around 1750, when restoration work was undertaken by the Hodder family, who owned Ballea until the early 1900s. The castle has been modernized in more recent times and is now a private residence.

DUNMANWAY, WEST CORK

Situated on a high rocky outcrop overlooking Ballinacarriga Lough in West Cork, Ballinacarriga tower house is believed to have been built by the O’Muirthile (Hurley) family, with the date 1585 carved into the wall on the fourth floor. But there is evidence that the castle was originally an older McCarthy stronghold. Inside, at the second-storey level, carving in the window embrasure is of a female figure accompanied by five roses, thought to be of Catherine O’Cullane, wife of Randall Hurley, and her five children. The castle and lands were confiscated and granted to English settlers after the family joined the rebellion of 1641 against the English settlement of Munster. The castle passed through various families and some religious carvings suggest it may also have been used as a church. It has been unoccupied since the early nineteenth century.

CLONMELLON, COUNTY WESTMEATH

+353 46 943 3234 | www.ballinloughcastle.ie

Built in 1641, Ballinlough is the ancestral home of the Nugent family, who claim lineage back to Brian, the fourth king of Connacht. Legend goes that he had one daughter and 24 sons, twelve of whom are said to have been baptized by St Patrick. The coat of arms over the front door is that of the O’Reilly clan: the family changed their name from O’Reilly to Nugent to avail of a dowry in 1812. Since then several generations of Baronet Nugents have occupied the house, making them one of the very few seventeenth-century Irish Catholic families who still live in their original family home. The castle was extended in the late eighteenth century, when a new wing was added to the design of the talented amateur architect Thomas Wogan Browne, who was responsible for Malahide Castle on the outskirts of Dublin. Today Ballinlough is best known as the venue for the popular Body & Soul festival which takes place in the grounds in the month of June. The house is also available as a venue for weddings and events, and the extensive grounds are also open to the public.