Carlow Castle ( ga, Caisleán Cheatharlach) is located near to the
River Barrow in
County Carlow
County Carlow ( ; ga, Contae Cheatharlach) is a county located in the South-East Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. Carlow is the second smallest and the third least populous of Ireland's 32 traditional counties. Carlow Cou ...
,
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 ...
.
It was built between 1207 and 1213, and is a
National Monument of Ireland.
History and Architecture
The earliest written record of this castle is from 1231 but it does not name its builder. It is widely assumed that the castle was built by
William Marshal the elder in the time period between 1207 and 1213 which he spent in Ireland.
[Leask, p. 47.] The castle in Carlow was the very first of its kind in Ireland, a towered
keep
A keep (from the Middle English ''kype'') is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in c ...
, where a huge rectangular tower is surrounded by four smaller three-quarter-circular towers at the corners of the rectangle.
However, there have been doubts that the castle in Carlow supported the traditional function of a keep, i.e. to serve as a refuge of last resort. Instead it deliberately diverted from the contemporary standard in England and continental Europe, i.e. there is no towered curtain, no gate house, and no undivided great hall.
[McNeill, p. 118.] Similar castles of the same period were erected in
Ferns,
Lea, and
Terryglass.
The inner castle measured , the towers had a diameter of , and the walls were thick.
The inner castle had three storeys and timber was used for the upper storeys. The long west wall provided stairways
[Leask, p. 49.] and two latrines. The latter indicates that the space was divided. The entrance door was in the first floor but is now broken out.
The castle was handed over to the crown in 1306, granted in 1312 to
Thomas Plantagenet, confiscated by the crown in 1537 as the landlords were absent, bought by the
Earl of Thomond
Earl of Thomond was an hereditary title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created twice for the O'Brien dynasty which is an ancient Irish sept native to north Munster.
History and background
First creation
Under the Crown of Ireland Act 1542, Ki ...
in 1616, changed hands multiple times until it was taken by
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 ...
in 1650 but was later returned to the Earl of Thomond. In 1814 the castle was widely destroyed in an attempt to create more space for the conversion into a lunatic asylum with the help of
explosives
An explosive (or explosive material) is a reactive substance that contains a great amount of potential energy that can produce an explosion if released suddenly, usually accompanied by the production of light, heat, sound, and pressure. An expl ...
.
Just the outer face of the west wall and the two neighbouring towers could be preserved.
[McNeill, p. 119.]
Literature
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See also
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Castles in Great Britain and Ireland
Castles have played an important military, economic and social role in Great Britain and Ireland since their introduction following the Norman invasion of England in 1066. Although a small number of castles had been built in England in the 10 ...
*
List of castles in Ireland
References
{{Authority control
Buildings and structures in Carlow (town)
Castles in County Carlow
National Monuments in County Carlow
Ruins in the Republic of Ireland