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The Fate of Carrigafoyle Castle
‘Carrick and Carrig are the names of nearly seventy townlands, villages and towns, and form the beginning of about 555 others; craig and creag are represented by the various forms Crag, Craig, Creg,...
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How the Mighty have Fallen
‘Sir Lucas Dillon, father of the first Earl of Roscommon, and son of Sir Robert Dillon, who was Attorney-General to Henry VIII, built the castle and church of Moymett, after having received the grants...
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A Fair Stone Howse
Thought to have been born in Paisley, Scotland around 1577, Sir George Hamilton was a younger son of Claud Hamilton, first Lord Paisley. Following the accession of James VI to the English throne (as...
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The Four Penny Castle
Now surrounded by suburban housing, Monkstown Castle, County Cork once stood proud in its own grounds and overlooking the estuary of the river Lee and access to Cork harbour. The building dates back...
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Difficult to Locate without a Guide
In Parnell and His Island, originally published as a series of articles in Le Figaro in 1886, George Moore recalls an early morning duck shooting expedition on Lough Carra, County Mayo. He and his...
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A Cabinet of Curiosities
Cabinets of Curiosity have probably always existed, albeit in different forms. In a seminal work on the subject published in 1908, Die Kunst- und Wunderkammern der Spätrenaissance (later translated as...
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Beyond Balief
The histories of some Irish buildings are easier to trace than others. The origins and owners of Balief Castle, County Kilkenny prove particularly elusive. It is commonly stated that the castle,...
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Reopened
The Barry family can trace its links with Ireland back to 1183 when the Cambro-Norman knight Philip de Barry arrived here accompanied by his brother Gerald – otherwise known as the chronicler Giraldus...
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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...
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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...
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