Orna Mulcahy - Irish Castles

BALLINTOBER, COUNTY ROSCOMMON

www.roscommon.ie

A large moated castle with a central courtyard, or bawn, of 1.5 acres, Ballintober dates from around 1290. It was built on an imposing scale, with enormous corner towers and small projecting turrets. It is thought the builder was William de Burgo, and that the castle’s large area was intended to permit an Anglo-Norman settlement within its walls but, within a few decades of being built, Ballintober came into the possession of the O’Connor clan and was the seat of the O’Connor Don until 1652. In 1598, the castle was taken by Red Hugh O’Donnell, who used cannons to bombard it and forced Hugh O’Connor Don to renounce his allegiance to the Crown. In 1641, it became a centre of Catholic resistance and it was confiscated in 1652. The castle and lands were restored to the O’Connors in 1677 and they remained there until 1701, when the castle was abandoned and fell into ruin.

LOUGHREA, COUNTY GALWAY

All that remains today of the stronghold of the powerful O’Donnellan clan, who controlled lands between Lough Rea and Ballinsloe, is a ruin of a fifteenth-century tower and the substantial house grafted onto it in the mid eighteenth century. Ballydonnellan Castle is likely to have been built some time after 1412, an early fortress on the site having been destroyed by fire. The entire edifice was still standing when it was mapped in the 1890s, but had fallen into decay by the early twentieth century and is now in ruins. Fragments of its former glory, such as fine plasterwork, can be glimpsed through the ivy that has all but engulfed it.

BALLYHACK, COUNTY WEXFORD

+353 51 389468 | www.heritageireland.ie

A well-preserved fifteenth-century tower house that stands guard over the Waterford Estuary, Ballyhack Castle is thought to have been built, circa 1450, by the Order of Knights of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem, a military order founded at the beginning of the twelfth century at the time of the Crusades. The castle is open to the public, having been partially restored, and visitors can see a classic murder hole that allowed for attackers to be assaulted from above with cascade of rocks. A permanent exhibition displays objects relating to the Crusades, the Normans, and medieval monks.

RECESS, CONNEMARA, COUNTY GALWAY

+353 95 31006 | www.ballynahinch-castle.com

Surrounded by woodlands in the heart of Connemara with a backdrop of the Twelve Bens mountains, Ballynahinch Castle was built in the eighteenth century by the powerful Martin family, who produced Humanity Dick Martin, an MP so named for his championing of animal rights, but also known as Hair-Trigger Dick for the several people he killed or wounded in duels.

The castle is set on the banks of the Owenmore river, renowned for its fly fishing, and it was this that attracted the Indian prince and cricketer Ranjitsinhji (“Ranji”), who fell for its romantic setting in the 1920s. He renovated the castle and built fishing huts and piers along the river, and he lived at Ballynahinch until his death in 1933. The castle has been run as an up-market hotel since 1946 and has recently been entirely refurbished by its current owner, the businessman Denis O’Brien.

TOMHAGGARD, COUNTY WEXFORD

One of a number of fortresses built in the fifteenth century by the Rossiter family who settled in Ireland following the Norman invasion, Bargy Castle was confiscated by Cromwell in 1667, in response to Rossiter’s part in the defence of Wexford. The castle was then granted to William Ivory, who sold it to the Harvey family. They held it until the mid twentieth century, when it was bought by General Sir Eric de Burgh, a former Chief of Staff in the Indian Army, and the grandfather of musician and songwriter Chris de Burgh. The singer lived there as a child with his parents Charles and Maeve Davison, who ran the castle as a hotel.

The castle is a private residence and cannot be visited.

DUNLEER, COUNTY LOUTH

+353 41 685 1205 | www.barmeath-castle.com

Originally the site of a medieval tower house with sweeping views over Dundalk Bay, Barmeath Castle was enlarged in the mid eighteenth century, with the addition of a substantial residence that has been home to the Bellew family for generations. The impressive castellated façade was enhanced in the 1830s with the addition of a portcullis entrance, and a turreted curtain wall that encloses a large courtyard. The castle is surrounded by ten acres of the gardens originally laid out by English landscape architect and astronomer Thomas Wright. The gardens, which have been restored in recent years, include an eighteenth-century archery ground surrounded by Irish yew.

The castle is available to rent on Airbnb.

BALLYMORE EUSTACE, COUNTY KILDARE

+353 45 864 115 | www.barretstown.org

A tower house with a Gothic Victorian addition, Barretstown was first recorded in a 1547 inquisition held after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, when it was listed as the property of the Archbishop of Dublin. It was confiscated by the Crown and subsequently leased to the Eustaces, a distinguished family who had arrived in Ireland at the time of the Norman invasion and who gave their name to the town that grew up around it – Ballymore Eustace. The castle has had a number of wealthy international owners including cosmetics tycoon Elizabeth Arden and billionaire retailer Galen Weston, who gifted it to the Irish State. Since the mid 1990s, the 500-acre estate has been run as a camp and respite centre for seriously ill children and their families, by a charity founded by the late actor Paul Newman.

BARRYSCOURT, CARRIGTWOHILL, COUNTY CORK

A typical fifteenth-century tower house, Barryscourt Castle was for centuries home to the Norman De Barry family. There is evidence that this site has been occupied for as long as one thousand years. Phillip De Barry built a castle here in 1202, but the present tower dates from around the mid sixteenth century.