Carlow Castle
| Carlow Castle | |
|
County Carlow | |
|---|---|
 Carlow Castle | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | S71767666 |
| Location: | 52°50’11"N, 6°56’9"W |
| Town: | Carlow |
| History | |
| Built 1207–1213 | |
| Information | |
| Condition: | Ruinous |
Carlow Castle stands in majestic ruin near the River Barrow within the town of Carlow, in County Carlow. It was built between 1207 and 1213, probably for William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke. Today it 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, 2nd Earl of Pembroke in the period between 1207 and 1213 which he spent in Ireland.[1][2]
The castle in Carlow was the very first of its kind in Ireland, a towered keep, where a huge rectangular tower is surrounded by four smaller three-quarter-circular towers at the corners of the rectangle.[1] However, there have been doubts that the castle in Carlow supported the traditional function of a keep, which is to say to serve as a refuge of last resort: instead it deliberately diverted from the contemporary standard in England and continental Europe in that there is no towered curtain, no gate house, and no undivided great hall.[3] Similar castles of the same period were erected in Ferns, Lea, and Terryglass.[3]
The inner castle measured 52 feet by 30 feet,[4] the towers had a diameter of 15 feet, and the walls were 9 feet thick.[1] The inner castle had three storeys and timber was used for the upper storeys. The long west wall provided stairways[5] and two latrines. The latter indicates that the space was divided.[6] The entrance door was in the first floor but is now broken out.[5][7]
The castle was handed over to the Crown in 1306, granted in 1312 to Thomas of Brotherton, 1st Earl of Norfolk, confiscated by the Crown in 1537 as the landlords were absent, bought by the Earl of Thomond in 1616, changed hands multiple times until it was taken by Oliver Cromwell in 1650 but was later returned to the Earl of Thomond. In 1814 the castle was largely destroyed in an attempt to create more space for the conversion into a lunatic asylum with the help of explosives.[2] Just the outer face of the west wall and the two neighbouring towers could be preserved.[7][8]
Outside links
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("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Carlow Castle) |
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Leask, p. 47.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Harbison, Peter (1992). Guide to National and Historic Monuments of Ireland. Dublin: Gill and Macmillan. pp. 50–51. ISBN 0-7171-1956-4.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 McNeill, p. 118.
- ↑ McNeill, p. 146
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Leask, p. 49.
- ↑ McNeill, p. 122.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Brindley, Anna; Kilfeather, Annaba, eds (1993). Archaeological Inventory of County Carlow. Dublin: Stationery Office. p. 84. ISBN 0-7076-0324-2.
- ↑ McNeill, p. 119.
- Leask, Harold G. (1941). Irish Castles and Castellated Houses. Dundalk: W. Tempest, Dundalgan Press.
- McNeill, Tom (1997). Castles in Ireland. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-16537-7.