Ardgillan Castle is a country house in Balbriggan, Dublin, Ireland. It is set in the 200-acre (0.81 km2) Ardgillan Demesne, a public park in the jurisdiction of Fingal County Council.[1]

Features
Featuring castellated embellishments, the building overlooks Barnageera Beach, the Irish Sea and Balbriggan. The castle consists of two storeys over a basement, which extends under the south lawns. When occupied, the ground and first floors were the living accommodation while the west and east wings were servants quarters and estate offices. The basement was the service floor, the kitchen and stores. The castle has now been restored and is open to visitors.

Ardgillan Demesne is open to visitors, with a mix of woodlands and large grass open spaces. The park contains a walled herb garden, rose garden[2], Victorian conservatory or glasshouse, tea rooms and an ice house. A children's playground was added in 2006.

History

The previous owner of the land was Robert Usher a wine merchant from Tallaght. When Reverend Robert Taylor bought the land it was quite a wooded area so he employed some out of service soldiers from Bangor Co. Down and paid them 1p and a meal per day as well as bed every night: they also received a tot of Irish whiskey from bushmills which was brought in for 2 shilling 2 pence a gallon.

The house was built by the Reverend Robert Taylor in 1738. The house remained in the Taylor family until 1962 when the estate was sold to Heir Henrich Potts of Westphalia.

In 1982 the estate was sold to Fingal County Council who with the help of Fás renovated the house and it was officially opened to the public in 1992 by then president Mary Robinson.

Ardgillan Castle

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A truly spectacular and historical property built around 1465 with stunning views over the surrounding countryside and enjoying a most striking setting in the heart of county meath.

Dardistown Castle is located a short distance from Julianstown village in County Meath. It is situated on the River Nanny which flows into the sea at Laytown about 3km away. Julianstown, in line with much of Eastern Ireland and Bettystown in particular has become a popular location for commuters to Dublin, Drogheda and Dundalk. Julianstown is well placed for a variety of sporting activities in the surrounding area, being positioned with in the Louth Hunt, Meath Hunt and Ward Union Hunt country, giving easy boxing distance to most meets. There are also a number of superb golf courses within close proximity including Julianstown Golf Club, Bellewstown Golf Course and South Meath Gold Club. 

HISTORY

Dardistown Castle was built in 1465 by John Cornwalsh with a British Government grant of £10. In the mid 1400's the English were fully occupied in the Hundred Year's War. To compensate for their military absence from Ireland, a limited number of government grants of £10 were made available to landowners in The Pale for the building of fortified houses. John Cornwalsh obtained a £10 grant in 1465 for the building of Dardistown Castle. The first extension to the castle, forming part of the present house, was built before 1582, when Dame Genet Sarsfield (widow of Sir John Plunkett of Dunsoghly) came to reside here, made a new entrance doorway and built a further addition. The historic battle of Julianstown of 1641 is said to have taken place on the front lawn of Dardistown, though at that time separated from the house by the road. Richard Talbot was then in occupation of the castle. Three new rooms were added to the castle about this time. The present front hall, drawing room and dining room date from around 1750. The upper floors were added in two stages, the back about 1800 and the front in 1860. Around 1800 the road (main Drogheda – Dublin road at that time) was moved so that, instead of passing the front door, it now curves several hundred yards from the Castle, enclosing the area which is now picturesque parkland. 

1n 1827 Mr Henry Osborne of Dardistown bred the horse Abd-El-Kader, which won the Grand National on two consecutive occasions from 1850. Dardistown is a huge fortress like structure. The plan of the castle basically consists of an oblong with a quadrangular turret at reach corner. These turrets differ slightly in size. Including the turrets, each side of the building is about 44 ft long above the base batter. The main entrance, an arched doorway on the north side, is now blocked up and there is a ruined machicoulis above it at roof level. The present entrance is on the southside. Dardistown is an excellent example of a large fifteenth century manor house and was surely built by a wealthy and ambitious landowner. A church dedicated to the Virgin Mary used to stand on its grounds and the Civil Survey recorded the castle, a stone house and two mills on the estate. 

The lands around Dardistown Castle extend to some 30 acres of gardens and grounds with superb pasture lands to the front and sweeping driveway. The Courtyard is as impressive as the main house itself with magnificent stone work on the buildings. There are massive opportunities to use these building for extra accommodation and already the current owners have converted two units into self-catering accommodation that can be rented out quite easily as holidays homes.

Dardistown House

Swords Castle was built as the manorial residence of the first Anglo-Norman Archbishop of Dublin, John Comyn, around 1200 or a little later in Swords, just north of Dublin. The castle was never strong in the military sense, but is unusual in that the perimeter wall of 305 metres is far larger than normal for an Irish castle.[1] The walls enclose a large pentagonal walled area of nearly 6,000 m² (1.5 acres) with a tower on the north, probably the Constable's residence, and an impressive gateway complex on the south. Within the castle were the Archbishop's apartments, apartments for knights and a banqueting hall. The warder may have occupied the quarters to the left of the gate, while to the right was the janitor's room with the priest's room overhead. The adjoining chapel, built in the late 13th century, was probably used as the Archbishop's private oratory. Other buildings, recorded for an inquisition in 1326, have now vanished, including the great hall on the east side of the enclosure.

History
A monastic settlement attributed to St. Columba (or Colmcille) existed in Swords from the 6th century, which in the 12th century was brought under the control of the Archbishop of Dublin. In 1181 John Comyn succeeded Laurence O'Toole as Archbishop and it appears that he chose Swords at some point as his chief residence, probably because the prebend of Swords was of considerable wealth and was much sought after. The evidence is that he had a manor in Swords by 1192, as a patent was granted to him there on that date authorising him to hold an annual fair lasting a week on the feast day (June 9) of St. Columba. It is generally accepted that the castle was then built around 1200 or a little later as the manorial residence of the Archbishop. The archbishop had his own seneschal at Swords and an ecclesiastical court was also held there. In 1216 the manor of Swords was granted to Henry de Loundres, the second English Archbishop, and it is recorded that in 1220 one William Galrote held the position of chief constable of the castle.

It appears that the Castle was occupied for the next hundred years by successive Archbishops of Dublin until Archbishop Alexander de Bicknor, who built a new Archiepiscopal palace at Tallaght in 1324. It appears by this stage that Swords Castle had been abandoned. The evidence for this is that in 1326 de Bicknor was accused of mishandling the treasury and the profits of his See were seized by the king and an inquisition held before the Sheriff of Dublin on 14 March 1326. The purpose of the inquisition was to ascertain the profits of the See, and as part of this a detailed description of Swords Castle was recorded. It is clear from this description that the Castle had fallen into disrepair. In all likelihood Swords was abandoned because of damage sustained during the Bruce campaign in Ireland of 1317, which was known to have devastated the country south from Dundalk to the gates of Dublin. Although there is no direct evidence that Swords Castle had been attacked by Bruce's forces, it was not well fortified enough to withstand assault, and the probability is that the Archbishop had removed himself to Tallaght for safety reasons.


It is doubtful if all the buildings of the Castle were ever repaired, but the stepped battlements suggest some form of occupancy during the 15th century, when it appears the castle was granted to retired Archbishops. There is no documentary evidence to show that any of them resided there however. Instead it seems that a portion at least of the castle was occupied by a constable during the 14th, 15th and early 16th centuries. As late as 1547 Thomas Fitzsimons of Swords was appointed constable, and subsequently the Barnewall family retained an interest in the constableship and tenancy of the Castle. But by 1583, when briefly occupied by Dutch Protestants, it was described as ""the quite spoiled old castle"". The viceroy, Sir Henry Sydney, had some of the building repaired for the use of the colony of Dutch weavers who he hoped might 'show some example of industry to the lazy natives'.[2]

During the 1641 Rebellion the castle was chosen as the rendezvous for the Anglo-Irish Catholic families of The Pale [3] On 9 December of that year they assembled under arms at the Castle in order to join the rebellion, but were attacked by Sir Charles Coote under orders of the Lords Justices. Coote put them to flight, chasing them out of their fortifications and killing two hundred of them. It is possible that some burials found during modern excavations of the castle relate to this incident.

Not much is known about the Castle after that, but an Ordnance Survey map of 1837 shows the grounds or Bawn of the Castle had been converted into a garden. After the Church of Ireland was disestablished in 1870 the castle was sold to the Cobbe family, who leased it to local shopkeeper Robert Savage. Savage turned the grounds of the castle into an orchard and sold the produce in his shop.[4] In the 1930s the site was placed under the guardianship of the Office of Public Works, and in 1985 Dublin County Council (later Fingal County Council) purchased the castle with a view to its restoration.[5]

The Parks Department of Fingal County Council carried out a number of studies, including a conservation study of the entire area, and in 1995 a plan was agreed by the Council for the long term phased restoration of the castle. In 1996 work commenced on the restoration of Constable's Tower, and this was completed in 1998. The restoration of the rest of the castle is still ongoing and when complete, Swords Castle is intended to become a tourist attraction. The newly renovated castle was used as a film location for the production of TV series The Tudors in spring 2010. Swords Castle and Courtyard is open to the public from Monday to Friday by appointment only by calling 00353 (0)1 890 5600.

Swords Castle

Malahide Castle (Irish: Caisleán Mhullach Íde), parts of which date to the 12th century, lies, with over 260 acres (1.1 km2) of remaining estate parkland (the Malahide Demesne Regional Park), close to the village of Malahide, nine miles (14 km) north of Dublin in Ireland.

History
The estate began in 1185, when Richard Talbot, a knight who accompanied Henry II to Ireland in 1174, was granted the ""lands and harbour of Malahide."" The oldest parts of the castle date back to the 12th century and it was home to the Talbot family for 791 years, from 1185 until 1976, the only exception being the period from 1649–60, when Oliver Cromwell granted it to Miles Corbet after the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland; Corbet was hanged following the demise of Cromwell, and the castle was restored to the Talbots. The building was notably enlarged in the reign of Edward IV, and the towers added in 1765.

The estate survived such losses as the Battle of the Boyne, when fourteen members of the owner's family sat down to breakfast in the Great Hall, and all were dead by evening, and the Penal Laws, even though the family remained Roman Catholic until 1774.

In 1918 during the First World War a mooring-out base for airships was established in the grounds of the castle, used by airships from RNAS Anglesey in Wales which conducted anti-submarine operations in the Irish Sea. There were plans to base airships here from 1919, but these were abandoned at the end of the war.[1]

In the 1920s the private papers of James Boswell were discovered in the castle, and sold to American collector Ralph H. Isham by Boswell's great-great-grandson Lord Talbot de Malahide.

Malahide Castle and Demesne was eventually inherited by the 7th Baron Talbot and on his death in 1973, passed to his sister, Rose. In 1975, Rose sold the castle to the Irish State, partly to fund inheritance taxes. Many of the contents, notably furnishings, had been sold in advance, leading to considerable public controversy, but private and governmental parties were able to retrieve some.

Visiting
The castle, along with its subsidiary attractions, was for many years operated as a tourist attraction by Dublin Tourism, working with Fingal County Council, which owns the whole demesne. The operating partner is now Shannon Heritage, which has in turn appointed subsidiary partners, most notably, for shop and café facilities, Avoca Handweavers.

The castle itself can be visited for a fee, on a guided-tour-only basis. In addition, it is possible to hire the famously Gothic Great Hall for private banquets. The castle's best-known rooms are the Oak Room, and the Great Hall, which displays Talbot family history. In the courtyard behind the castle are a café and craft shop, and other retail facilities.

The Talbot Botanic Gardens, situated behind the castle, comprising several hectares of plants and lawns, a walled garden of 1.6 hectares and seven glasshouses, including a Victorian conservatory. Many plants from the southern hemisphere, notably Chile and Australia, are featured. The gardens showcase the plant collecting passion of the 7th Lord Talbot de Malahide in the mid 20th Century.

The demesne is one of few surviving examples of 18th century landscaped parks, and has wide lawns surrounded by a protective belt of trees. It can be visited freely, with a number of entrances and car parking areas.

In addition to woodland walks, and a marked ""exercise trail,"" the park features sports grounds, including a cricket pitch and several football pitches, a 9-hole par-3 golf course, an 18-hole pitch-and-putt course, tennis courts and a boules area.

Adjacent to the golfing facilities, and containing the access to them, is a pavilion which also contains a café and other facilities.

The cricket venue is Ireland's biggest,[citation needed] with a capacity of 11,500. Located in the Lady Acre field, the Malahide Cricket ground attracts international fixtures and teams such as Australia, England and Pakistan.[2]

There is an extensive children's playground near the castle.

A seasonal road train operates in a loop from the vicinity of the castle to the railway station and back. A Malahide castle and coastal tour bus begins its journeys in Malahide Castle and continues to Howth, with two daily departures.[3]

The Fry Model Railway was located at Malahide Castle from 1988-2010. As of September 2017 it is expected to re-open at the Casino, Malahide in 2019.

Tara's Palace Museum of Childhood was formerly located at Malahide Castle, but relocated to Powerscourt Estate near Enniskerry in 2011.

Malahide Castle

Dunsoghly Castle is a castle and a National Monument in St Margaret's, Ireland.

Location
Dunsoghly Castle is found in St. Margarets, Co Dublin.

History
Dunsoghly Castle was built around 1450 by Sir Thomas Plunket, Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas, and was continuously occupied until the 1870s by descendants of the same family, despite being a cramped Irish castle and uncomfortable by post-medieval standards. The lofty four-storey tower of the castle has tapering corner turrets rising above the parapet.

The roof, which has served as a model for restorations at Bunratty Castle and Rothe House, is arch-braced with four oak principals; on each collar-beam stands a king-post supporting a purlin and cross-pieces below the ridge. The rafters are laid flat rather than on edge as in modern roofs and the framework covered with split laths.

There is a small chapel to the south bearing the year ""1573"" over the door, the Instruments of the Passion and the initials of Sir John Plunket and his third wife Jenet Sarsfield. Sir John was the grandson of Sir Thomas, who built Dunsoghly, and like his grandfather he presided as Chief Justice in one of the courts of common law. Jenet was a much married lady, Sir John being the fifth of her six husbands. On the west and south are remains of earthwork defences put up during the warfare of the 1670s.

Dunsoghly Castle

After the Anglo-Norman colonization of Louth in the late 12th century, Termonfeckin evolved into a medieval borough.[*1] While little is known of its layout and size, it was sufficiently important to have possessed a parish church (on the site of the present Church of Ireland) and two castles. Both of these appear to have been Tower Houses (see Roodstown Castle for general details on this type of castle). Only one of these Tower Houses survives today, but when Thomas Wright visited Termonfeckin in the 1740s both of them were standing. Possibly because of its associations with the famous Archbishop Ussher, Wright chose to record only one of these castles (Louthiana, Book II, Plate XIX-XX).

Ironically, this tower has now vanished, though its site is well known: it stood just south ofon the river bank at the western end of the village just south of the bridge. It certainly still stood in 1791 (see illustration) but was gone by the time the Ordnance Survey of Ireland visited Termonfeckin in the late 1830s.

The surviving tower house (see isometric view) stands at the eastern edge of the village. It is a three storey rectangular building which originally had projecting towers on its N and S angles. However, it has been the subject of major alterations at some time in its history, particularly on the ground storey. These alterations are possibly the work of one Captain Brabazon who is documented as having 'repaired' the castles in Termonfeckin in 1641 (Harbison 1970, 166). The castle's major architectural feature is the very fine stone-built vault which spans the 2nd storey. This employs the same building technique - corbelling - as the roof of the prehistoric passage tomb at Newgrange, which lies only 15km to the south-west. While it is tempting to speculate about 'connections' between these two monuments, it is best to put down the occurrence of corbelling to co-incidence rather than 'continuity'.

Termonfeckin

Howth Castle lies just outside the village of Howth, County Dublin in Ireland, in the administration of Fingal County Council. It was the ancestral home of the line of the St Lawrence family (see: Earl of Howth) that had held the area since the Norman Invasion of 1180, and had held the title of Lord Howth from 1425 to 1767. It is now held by their heirs, the Gaisford St. Lawrence family.

History
Since 1180 the St. Lawrence family were the feudal lords of Howth. The original family castle, a timber structure, was sited on the edge of Howth village, on Tower Hill, overlooking Balscadden Bay. Howth Castle has stood on its present site for over seven hundred years. The great English architect Sir Edwin Lutyens restyled a 14th-century castle built here, overlooking Ireland's Eye and the north Dublin coastline.

Legend
A popular legend about the Castle concerns an incident that apparently occurred in 1576. During a trip from Dublin, the pirate Gráinne O'Malley attempted to pay a courtesy visit to the 8th Baron Howth. However, she was informed that the family was at dinner and the castle gates were closed against her. In retaliation, she abducted the grandson and heir, the 10th Baron. He was eventually released when a promise was given to keep the gates open to unexpected visitors, and to set an extra place at every meal. At Howth Castle today, this agreement is still honoured by the descendants of the Baron.

Use in film
Castle Howth was depicted as the fictitious ""Castle Haloran"" from the 1963 Roger Corman and Francis Ford Coppola b-film Dementia 13 (a.k.a. ""The Haunted and the Hunted"") where it was the setting of numerous scenes.

Flashback scenes from the Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western, Duck, You Sucker were shot here.[1] The castle was used extensively for exterior shots in Love & Friendship, Whit Stillman's adaptation of the Jane Austen novel Lady Susan.[2]

Grounds
In 1892 Rosa Mulholland referred to the grounds thus: “Back on the lower land you must visit the ancient demesne of the Earl of Howth, where a quaint old castle stands in a prim garden with swan-inhabited pond, and plashing fountain, encircled by dark beautiful woods full of lofty cathedral-like aisles, moss carpeted, and echoing with the cawing of rooks.”(Mulholland 1892: 35)

The grounds are noted for the wild rhododendron gardens, which are open to the public in summer and some of the oldest beech hedges in Ireland, planted in 1710. At certain times, such as summer 2016, guided tours of the castle could be booked at weekends.

In recent years, the 17th classical landscape was totally obliterated to make for the multi-facility Deer Park golf course, which had an associated hotel, the Deer Park Hotel, for many years.

The ""Kitchen in the Castle Cookery School"" is based in the restored Georgian kitchens of Howth Castle.

The National Transport Museum of Ireland is located in the grounds of the castle. It features lorries, trucks, fire engines and tractors. Also exhibited is the restored Hill of Howth No.9 Tram.

Literary references
The locale of James Joyce's 1939 novel Finnegans Wake is ""Howth Castle and Environs,"" which is taken to mean Dublin. The initials HCE appear in many contexts in the novel, not least in the name of its presumed main character, Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker.

Howth Castle

Clontarf Castle (Irish: Caisleán Chluain Tarbh) is a much-modernised castle, dating to 1837, in Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland, an area famous as a key location of the Battle of Clontarf in 1014. There has been a castle on the site since 1172. In modern times, it has functioned as a bar, cabaret venue, and hotel.

History
The deLacy family and the Templars
The first castle on the grounds, of which no trace remains, was built in 1172 by either Hugh de Lacy, Lord of Meath, or his tenant Adam de Phepoe. Clontarf was subsequently held by the Knights Templar and, after their suppression in 1308, passed to the Knights Hospitaller, until they were in turn deprived of it at the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The last prior, John Rawson was created Viscount Clontarf in 1541 in return for surrendering the castle and its lands to the crown.

16th century to 17th century
In 1600 Queen Elizabeth I granted the estate to Sir Geoffrey Fenton, her secretary of state for Ireland, and it passed by marriage from his descendants to the King family. George King of Clontarf took part in the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and as a result his lands were confiscated.

The Vernon family
Clontarf Castle - geograph.org.uk - 395705.jpg
At the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, the Clontarf estate was given to Captain John Blackwell, on 14 August 1649. Blackwell afterwards sold his interest to John Vernon, Quartermaster General of Cromwell's army. The Vernon family was to remain in possession for some 300 years.

In 1660, John Vernon, passed Clontarf Castle to his son, Edward Vernon. Edward died in 1684 and one of his sisters took possession. In 1695 a first cousin of Edward's, also named John Vernon, claimed rights and the estate was granted to him by an Act of Parliament in 1698.[1]

The last of the direct male line of Vernons at Clontarf was Edward Kingston Vernon (1869–1967), who succeeded to the estate on the death of his father Edward in 1913. He lived at the castle for only six months, after which time it was let to John George Oulton and his wife Mona, the only daughter of Walter Blades Calverley by Vernon's sister Edyth. The castle was finally sold to the Oultons in 1933.

JG Oulton, who took over the Vernon estate, died in the castle on 17 April 1952, and the Castle was left to his son, Desmond, who sold the property to pay death duties and other expenses.

1957 to 1997
The Castle remained vacant until 1957 when it was purchased by Mrs. Egan, who in turn sold it not long after to Eddie Regan in the 1960s. Gerry and Carmel Houlihan purchased the building in 1972 and ran it as a popular cabaret venue until 1998.

Conversion to hotel
The Castle re-opened to the public as a four-star, 111-room hotel in June, 1997.