Springfield Castle,
Broadford, is situated in the west part of
County Limerick
County Limerick () is a western Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is located in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Reg ...
,
Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
, close to the town of
Newcastlewest.
The castle is a group of buildings around a courtyard, comprising two stone keeps, or towers; one 15th-century, one 18th-century, a range of workshops and stables and the modernised remains of an 18th-century servants' wing.
In 1280 the
Norman Fitzgerald family settled at the site, then known as Gort na Tiobrad. The Fitzgeralds married into the local ruling class, the Gaelic O'Colleains and assumed the title Lords of Claonghlais. During the 15th century their descendants built a stone
keep
A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residen ...
. Recently restored the keep contains a fine example of a mural staircase (stone steps built within the thickness of the external wall).
During the mid-17th century the Fitzgeralds gave shelter and patronage to the Irish poet
Dáibhí Ó Bruadair (1625–1698), who wrote an elegy about the family, as well as recording their lives and exploits.
"David O'Bruadair"
Catholic Encyclopedia at newadvent.org.
As the family prospered, a second keep was built during the 18th century to garrison soldiers.
In 1691, following the confiscation of their lands by the King of England, the Fitzgeralds left Springfield and returned to France. The property was bought by William Fitzmaurice, a younger son of the 20th Lord Kerry. His son, John Fitzmaurice, built a large three-storey mansion in Early Georgian style, adjacent to the 13th-century keep, which survived until the Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various Resistance movement, resistance organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dominantly Catholic and dedicated to anti-imperiali ...
burnt it down in 1921.
In 1780 Ann Fitzmaurice, sole heiress, married Sir Robert Deane, 1st Baron Muskerry. Following the fire in 1921, Sir Robert Deane, 5th Baron Muskerry rebuilt the Georgian mansion's servants wing and renovated parts of the other buildings. It is these parts of the complex, with of land and several lodges, which are today inhabited by his descendants. The castle is owned by Robert Deane, 9th Baron Muskerry.
References
External links
Springfield Castle
{{coord, 52.3518, -8.9555, display=title
Castles in County Limerick