Jigginstown Castle is a ruined 17th-century house and
National Monument near
Naas, County Kildare, Ireland. It was constructed in the late 1630s when Ireland was under the reign of
Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
(1625–1649). At the time it was one of the largest buildings in Ireland, and the first to be constructed of red brick said to have been imported from Holland: the plans provided for pavement and columns of
Kilkenny marble.
Jigginstown Castle was built on the periphery of an area known as
The Pale
The Pale (Irish: ''An Pháil'') or the English Pale (' or ') was the part of Ireland directly under the control of the English government in the Late Middle Ages. It had been reduced by the late 15th century to an area along the east coast st ...
, which was on the outskirts of
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...
. It was an area which was guarded on its outskirts by the English plantation settlers to protect valuables and livestock. The castle has also been previously known as Siggingstown Castle.
Thomas Wentworth, Earl of Strafford and
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the 1630s, in his time the most powerful figure in Ireland, was responsible for the construction. His intention was for the castle to be a place where the King could reside on royal visits to Ireland. The downfall and execution for
treason
Treason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplo ...
of Lord Strafford in 1641 meant that the house was never completed, and it was largely destroyed during the civil strife of the 1640s. According to Strafford's biographer
Veronica Wedgwood
Dame Cicely Veronica Wedgwood, (20 July 1910 – 9 March 1997) was an English historian who published under the name C. V. Wedgwood. Specializing in the history of 17th-century England and continental Europe, her biographies and narrative hist ...
, the ruins were still visible in the 1950s. The basement and castle's ground floor still stand to this day.
[Wedgwood, C. V. ''Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford- a revaluation''. Phoenix Press reissue 2000 pp. 225–226]
References
Castles in County Kildare
National monuments in County Kildare
{{Ireland-hist-stub