Carlow Castle ( ga, Caisleán Cheatharlach) is located near to the

River Barrow The Barrow ( ga, An Bhearú) is a river in Ireland. It is one of The Three Sisters; the other two being the River Suir and the River Nore. The Barrow is the longest of the three rivers, and at 192 km (120 mi), the second-longest ri ...

County Carlow County Carlow ( ; ga, Contae Cheatharlach) is a Counties of Ireland, county located in the South-East Region, Ireland, South-East Region of Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. Carlow is the List of Irish counties by ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea, and St George's Channel. Ireland is the s ...

. 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, 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 A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes except th ...

Lea Lea or LEA may refer to: Places Australia * Lea River, Tasmania, Australia * Lake Lea, Tasmania, from which the Lea River flows * RAAF Base Learmonth, IATA airport code "LEA" England * Lea, Cheshire, a civil parish * Lea, Derbyshire, a set ...

, and

Terryglass Terryglass () is a village in County Tipperary, Ireland. The small town is located on the R493 regional road on the north-eastern shore of Lough Derg near where the River Shannon enters the Lough. It is a civil parish in the historical barony o ...

. 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 stairwaysLeask, 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 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 K ...

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. Just the outer face of the west wall and the two neighbouring towers could be preserved.McNeill, p. 119.

Literature

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References

{{Authority control Buildings and structures in Carlow (town) Castles in County Carlow National Monuments in County Carlow Ruins in the Republic of Ireland

History and Architecture

Literature

See also

References