Athlumney Castle () is a

tower house A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, in order to command and defend strateg ...

and

fortified house A fortified house or fortified mansion is a type of building which developed in Europe during the Middle Ages, generally with significant fortifications added. United States In the United States, historically a fortified house was often calle ...

and a

National Monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a spec ...

Navan Navan ( ; , meaning "the Cave") is the county town of County Meath, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In 2016, it had a population of 30,173, making it the List of urban areas in the Republic of Ireland by population, tenth largest settlement in ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. This site remains accessible to the public. You'll need to place a deposit at the nearby B&B to enter, and you'll be given a key to access the site.

Location

Athlumney Castle is located on Convent Road, to the southeast of

town centre, east of the Boyne.

History

Athlumney overlooks a key strategic point, where the

Leinster Blackwater The Kells Blackwater ( ga, An Abhainn Dubh), also called the River Blackwater or Leinster Blackwater, is a river that flows through the counties of Cavan and Meath in Ireland. It is a tributary of the River Boyne which flows into the Irish Se ...

drains into the Boyne. The place name derives from the Irish for "Loman's

ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

", referring to

Lommán of Trim Lommán mac Dalláin (''fl.'' 5th—early 6th century) was a saint and patron of Trim, County Meath in Ireland.Stalmans and Charles-Edwards, "Meath, saints of (act. ''c''.400–''c''.900)" Cenél Lóegairi, Trim and Armagh Trim (Áth Truimm -'f ...

. Archaeological digs uncovered an Early Christian

souterrain ''Souterrain'' (from French ''sous terrain'', meaning "under ground") is a name given by archaeologists to a type of underground structure associated mainly with the European Atlantic Iron Age. These structures appear to have been brought northw ...

. The

motte A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. Relatively easy to ...

at Athlumney was built in the years after 1172 when

Hugh de Lacy, Lord of Meath Hugh de Lacy, Lord of Meath, 4th Baron Lacy (; before 1135 – 25 July 1186), was an Anglo-Norman landowner and royal office-holder. He had substantial land holdings in Herefordshire and Shropshire. Following his participation in the Norman Inva ...

granted the title of

Baron Skryne Baron Skryne was the title of the holder of an Irish feudal barony: the title derived from the parish of Skryne, or Skreen, in County Meath. It was not recognised as a barony in the Peerage of Ireland, but was habitually used firstly by the de Feyp ...

to his ally

Adam de Feypo Adam de Feypo is first mentioned in ''The Red Book of the Echequer 1166, p283 (England)'' as being one of the knights of Hugh de Lacy in Herefordshire, England. He was possibly a castellan of one of the de Lacy castles on the Welsh border. As the h ...

; he in turn granted Athlumney to a relative Amauri de Feipo, who built the motte. The older part of Athlumney Castle is a

which was built in the 15th century. The newer part of the castle is a Tudor-style

attached to the tower. This was built in the late 16th century or early 17th century. It had large corridors and its ground floor kitchen provided heat for the first floor rooms where the Lord lived. The doorway is cut limestone and there is an

oriel window An oriel window is a form of bay window which protrudes from the main wall of a building but does not reach to the ground. Supported by corbels, bracket (architecture), brackets, or similar cantilevers, an oriel window is most commonly found pro ...

on its eastern wall. In 1649 during

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three Ki ...

Siege of Drogheda The siege of Drogheda or the Drogheda massacre took place 3–11 September 1649, at the outset of the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. The coastal town of Drogheda was held by the Irish Catholic Confederation and English Royalists under ...

, the

Maguire Maguire ( , also spelled MacGuire or McGuire) is an Irish surname from the Gaelic , which is "son of Odhar" meaning "dun", "dark one". According to legend, this relates to the eleventh descendant of Colla da Chrich, great-grandson of Cormac mac ...

(Mac Uidhir) who held Athlumney Castle burned it down to prevent Cromwell taking possession of it. The last Lord of Athlumney was Sir Launcelot Dowdall. The Dowdalls lost their land during the Cromwellian Plantation and got it back under Charles II. They backed the Catholic

James II James II may refer to: * James II of Avesnes (died c. 1205), knight of the Fourth Crusade * James II of Majorca (died 1311), Lord of Montpellier * James II of Aragon (1267–1327), King of Sicily * James II, Count of La Marche (1370–1438), King C ...

and Launcelot Dowdall was

High Sheriff of Meath The High Sheriff of Meath was the British Crown's judicial representative in County Meath, Ireland, from the conquest until 1922, when the office was abolished in the new Free State and replaced by the office of Meath County Sheriff. The sheriff ...

in 1686. After James' defeat at the

Battle of the Boyne The Battle of the Boyne ( ga, Cath na Bóinne ) was a battle in 1690 between the forces of the deposed King James II of England and Ireland, VII of Scotland, and those of King William III who, with his wife Queen Mary II (his cousin and ...

(which took place just 19 km / 12 mi from Athlumney Castle), Dowdall left for France and supposedly burned the castle down again. The property later belonged to the Somerville family of

Kentstown Kentstown () is a village in County Meath in Ireland at the junction of the R153 and R150 regional roads. History The ruins of a medieval church can be found in Danestown, Kentstown, while in the present St. Mary's Parish Church (Church of I ...

who took the title of

Baron Athlumney Baron Athlumney, of Somerville and Dollarstown in the County of Meath, was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1863 for the Liberal politician Sir William Meredyth Somerville, 5th Baronet, who had previously served as Chief Secret ...

Building

The older part of Athlumney Castle is a

, with three storeys with a

spiral staircase Stairs are a structure designed to bridge a large vertical distance between lower and higher levels by dividing it into smaller vertical distances. This is achieved as a diagonal series of horizontal platforms called steps which enable passage ...

and holes for floor beams remaining on the first floor level. The later Tudor

is also three storeys high, with four sets of widely spaced

mullion A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...

ed windows. It had large corridors and its ground floor kitchen provided heat for the first floor where the Lord and his family lived. The doorway is cut

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

and there is an

in the eastern wall. There are projecting corner turrets. The castle has a

barrel vault A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...

above the ground floor. The original entrance was protected by a

murder-hole A murder hole or meurtrière is a hole in the ceiling of a gateway or passageway in a fortification through which the defenders could shoot, throw or pour harmful substances or objects such as rocks, arrows, scalding water, hot sand, quicklime ...

leading from a small room below the first floor level. This reflects a new age, when the Lord moved away from his retainers and lived in a residence with his own family. They lived on the first floor, heated by the kitchen below, with

glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...

open windows and wooden floors. On the first floor there is a secret mural chamber, reached only by a set of stairs from above, assumed to be a

priest hole A priest hole is a hiding place for a priest built into many of the principal Catholic houses of England, Wales and Ireland during the period when Catholics were persecuted by law. When Queen Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1558, there were se ...

References

Buildings and structures in Navan Castles in County Meath Fortified houses National Monuments in County Meath {{Ireland-castle-stub