Ardfinnan Castle, is the sister castle of Lismore Castle and was built circa 1186 to guard the river crossing in Ardfinnan (Ard Fhíonáin in Irish) in County Tipperary, Ireland. It is situated on the River Suir, seven miles west of Clonmel. The castle is currently privately owned and is not open for public viewing.

The castle is positioned on a large rocky incline and it looks out over the Suir valley with the Knockmealdown Mountains to the south, and the Galtee Mountains to the northwest. The castle is a parallelogram in shape with square battlements at the corners, and a fortified entrance gateway.

Early History

The castle was built in 1186 with its sister castle at Lismore in 1185 by the Earl of Morton & Lord of Ireland, who would eventually become King John of England in 1199. The castle was 40-50% destroyed by a cannon bombardment in 1649 by Henry Ireton (the son-in-law of Oliver Cromwell) when accompanying Cromwell in his Irish campaign. It was partially restored and rebuilt in the 18th century and 19th century.

The castle belonged to the Knights Templar, upon it's suppression it was granted to the Knights Hospitaller, and subsequently to the Bishop of Waterford. After it's restoration it was in the possession of the Prendergast's and later in the hands of the Mulcahy's of the large woollen mills which the castle overshadows, Mulcahy-Redmond & Co. The latest addition to the castle is the three storey gable-ended Georgian wing added to the main battlement by Mr. Mulcahy during the 1920s.

Helmet of Ayala

Castle owner W.J Mulcahy, who had recently restored the castle, had found what resembled a medieval knight's helmet below the castle when development of the mills by the river below was occurring. It was later identified that the helmet had on it the Spanish crest of Ayala. Mr. Mulcahy was wondering how the helmet of Ayala could have been found at Ardfinnan Castle, and Deputy Hassett, who had been looking up ancient records, discovered that a Spanish knight of that name had landed at Kinsale and, in all human probability, that knight was a captive in Ardfinnan Castle. The Spanish champagne producer Ayala & Co. are descendants of the same family as that knight whose helmet was retrieved after some hundreds of years from under Ardfinnan Castle.