Fires and ghosts

Shanganagh Castle (drawing)

Shanganagh Castle depicted in a black and white sketch. The castle was built in 1408 and remained until 1763 when it was ruined by a fire. It has close associations with the Lawless family.

Courtesy of the Irish Architectural Archive

Shanganagh Castle (drawing)
Courtesy of the Irish Architectural Archive

Shanganagh Castle (drawing)

Shanganagh Castle depicted in a black and white sketch. The castle was built in 1408 and remained until 1763 when it was ruined by a fire. It has close associations with the Lawless family.

Courtesy of the Irish Architectural Archive

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Shankill Castle was supposedly built in the thirteenth century. According to Kathleen Turner in her book 'If you seek monuments', Archbishop Henry de Loundres built it as an administrative centre for his property, which contained many manors.

Sometime around 1690 a house was added to the side of the castle. John Lawless was in residence at the castle from 1480, at the behest of Archbishop John Walton.

Shanganagh Castle

Shanganagh Castle depicted in a black and white sketch. The castle was built in 1408 and remained until 1763 when it was ruined by a fire. It has close associations with the Lawless family.

Courtesy of the Irish Architectural Archive

Shanganagh Castle
Courtesy of the Irish Architectural Archive

Shanganagh Castle

Shanganagh Castle depicted in a black and white sketch. The castle was built in 1408 and remained until 1763 when it was ruined by a fire. It has close associations with the Lawless family.

Courtesy of the Irish Architectural Archive

Enlarge image

The castle remained linked with this family until 1683 when it was leased to Sir Thomas Domvile. It was to return to the Lawless family again, some thirty years later. Today all that remains of the castle is the four ruined walls and the tower

Shanganagh Castle is the third castle in the same area as Puck's Castle and Shankill Castle. It can be dated more precisely than the other two, having been built in 1408 by the Lawless family. It was to be inhabited by their descendents for some three hundred years. In 1763 a fire left the castle in ruins. Here the impact on the landscape was unavoidable. The South and East facing walls are gone.

Unusually this castle was documented as having a thatched hall.

Monkstown Castle (Tower)

Although Monkstown Castle dates from the thirteenth/fourteenth century, nothing from that time remains today. The main tower dates from the fifteenth century, although the western part of it is from a later date. It features distinctive Irish battlements with projections from them through which stones could be thrown (machicolations). The tower is four stories high.

Monkstown Castle (Tower)

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However, the ruins of the hall were converted into a barn. Today two houses have been built in its place. The physical landscape was changed by the elements (in this case fire) and then adapted by people to serve another purpose.

Monkstown Castle dates from the thirteenth or fourteenth century, it was built by the monks of St.Mary's Abbey. The castle was at that time an imposing structure consisting of a courtyard with three surrounding towers, enclosing a large house with six chimneys.

Monkstown Castle (ruins)

Monkstown Castle dates from the thirteenth/fourteenth century. Originally the castle would have been an imposing structure with three towers and a large house with six chimneys. Time has changed all that and today the remains amount to a gate-house and a tower. The monks of St.Mary's Abbey built the castle but after the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, Sir John Travers took control of the castle.

Monkstown Castle (ruins)

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Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539 control of the castle passed on to Sir John Travers. After 1641 Cromwell granted it to General Ludlow. The castle then returned to the Cheevers family in 1660.

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