Norman Castles

Carrickfergus Castle, Co. Antrim

The keep of Carrickfergus Castle, Co. Antrim. A Norman stronghold founded by John De Courcy about 1180.

Carrickfergus Castle, Co. Antrim

The keep of Carrickfergus Castle, Co. Antrim. A Norman stronghold founded by John De Courcy about 1180.

Athenry Castle

Athenry Castle in Co. Galway was built around 1250. The Castle consists of a towering Keep surrounded by a curtain wall with three towers, one rectangular and two round. The entrance is at the first-floor level.

Image courtesy of Dept. of Environment, Community and Local Government

Athenry Castle
Image courtesy of Dept. of Environment, Community and Local Government

Athenry Castle

Image courtesy of Dept. of Environment, Community and Local Government

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The Irish had built castles before the Normans arrived in 1169, but what they looked like we know not. The first Norman fortifications were earthen mottes in the shape of a truncated cone, with a wooden tower or bretesche on top, as seen in the Bayeux tapestry, though the motte at Clogh, Co. Down, albeit with a stone tower on top, gives some idea of their appearance when seen from afar. Having established a foothold with these mottes (and their accompanying baileys for protecting cattle), the Normans set about building strong castles of stone to both cow and impress the natives. The most expansive is that built at Trim in the last decades of the twelfth century, consisting of a tall multi-storey tower or keep of cross-shaped ground-plan in what is now an open enclosure flanked by a stout bawn-wall with several rounded bastions, including one with a draw-bridge. Less extensive, but equally strong, was that built by John de Courcey at Carrickfergus, on the northern shore of Belfast Lough.

The Normans continued to build strong fortresses throughout the thirteenth century, usually with a pair of powerful rounded towers guarding the entrance, as we can see in Limerick Castle, Ballyloughan, Co. Carlow or Dungarvan in County Waterford. The recently-conserved Desmond castle at Adare has two imposing halls, of a kind once present too at Trim, and also later in Dublin Castle. The shapes of the castles vary considerably, the keeps being usually round (Dundrum, Co. Down, and Cloughoughter, Co. Cavan) or rectangular (Roscrea and Athenry

Athenry Castle

Image courtesy of Dept. of Environment, Community and Local Government

). One typical variant is a square core with strong rounded bastions at each corner, as at Ballymote, Co. Sligo, or Roscommon which was at the forefront of European castle-building when constructed in the late thirteenth century. Quite a number of the Norman castles have suffered considerable damage down the years, as is the case at Dunamase, Co. Laois, while others, such as Castle Roche, Co. Louth, show even
better just how impressive these fortifications would have looked in their prime when
located on a hill and viewed from below.

Dunguaire Tower House

Dunguaire Castle in Co. Galway has, for hundreds of years, stood proudly on the site of the 7th century stronghold of Guaire, the King of Connaught, its majesty dominating the shore of Galway Bay. The castle bridges centuries of Irish history, from the skirmishes, battles and sieges that characterise its colourful past, through to the literary revival of the 20th century.

Image courtesy of Dept. of Environment, Community and Local Government

Dunguaire Tower House
Image courtesy of Dept. of Environment, Community and Local Government

Dunguaire Tower House

Image courtesy of Dept. of Environment, Community and Local Government

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Tower-Houses

As with church building, the Black Death was one significant reason why Norman castle construction came to a virtual halt in Ireland around 1350. But, probably within half a century or so, a new kind of less strong fortification evolved - the tower-house. In contrast to the Norman castles, which were designed to house the Lord and his retinue of retainers and soldiers (these latter housed in long-vanished barracks within the curtain walls), the tower-houses were essentially family homes of the better-off landed proprietors. Their distribution throughout the country (though their paucity in the north is probably the result of considerable destruction) shows that, unlike the larger earlier castles, the tower-houses were built by Irish and Anglo-Norman alike. They were sometimes contained within a bawn, which was doubtless more effective in keeping cattle in than human marauders out, as best seen at Dunguaire near Kinvara. The towers were up to four storeys high, with the family living on the upper two floors and the servants occupying the vaulted basement. Furniture and comfort was probably frugal, except perhaps in castles such as Bunratty

Bunratty Castle

Bunratty Castle in Co. Clare is a fine example of a larger type tower-house in Ireland. This particular structure was built in 1425.

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, Cahir and Blarney, where the impressive size suggests greater affluence in the families which lived there. Tower-houses are mainly a product of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but one instance is recorded as late as 1643 at Derryhivenny in Galway which, like other western maritime counties such as Clare and Limerick, is particularly rich in monuments of this type.

Gallery

Trim Castle, Co. Meath

Trim Castle, the largest Anglo-Norman castle in Ireland, was constructed over a thirty year period by Hugh de Lacy and his son Walter. Hugh de Lacy was granted the Liberty of Meath by King Henry II in 1176 in an attempt to curb the expansionist policies of Richard de Clare, {Strongbow}. Construction of the massive three storied Keep, the central stronghold of the castle, was begun c.1176 on the site of an earlier wooden fortress. This massive twenty-sided tower, which is cruciform in shape, was protected by a ditch, curtain wall and moat.

By permission of Meath County Library.

Trim Castle, Co. Meath - By permission of Meath County Library.

Blarney Castle

Blarney Castle in Co. Cork was originally built as a stone castle in 1210. The present day construction was completed by Dermot McCarthy, King of Munster in 1446 and is one of the strongest surviving tower-houses in the country, famous for its stone of eloquence.

Image courtesy of Dept. of Environment, Community and Local Government

Blarney Castle - Image courtesy of Dept. of Environment, Community and Local Government

Roche Castle

Roche Castle, like its sister castle at Carlingford, were both built by the Anglo-Normans as part of the process of taming and colonizing north Louth in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. Striking and powerful, it commands a pass northwards and affords wonderful views over the surrounding country.

Image courtesy of Dept. of Environment, Community and Local Government

Roche Castle - Image courtesy of Dept. of Environment, Community and Local Government