Conna Castle (''

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

'': Caisleán Chonaithe) is a 16th century

tower house A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, in order to command and defend strate ...

located near

Conna Conna () is a village in County Cork, Ireland. It is situated on the River Bride, near the town of Fermoy, on the R628 regional road. The village contains several pubs, a shop, a post office, a Roman Catholic church (built ) and a nearby Church ...

County Cork County Cork ( ga, Contae Chorcaí) is the largest and the southernmost county of Ireland, named after the city of Cork, the state's second-largest city. It is in the province of Munster and the Southern Region. Its largest market towns ar ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

History

16th century

Conna Castle is situated in

on the

River Bride The River Bride () is a river in counties Cork and Waterford in Ireland. It is a tributary of the Munster Blackwater. Rising in the Nagle Mountains, it flows eastward, passing through the towns of Rathcormac, Castlelyons, Conna and Tallow, ...

, a tributary of the River Blackwater, roughly six miles west of

Tallow Tallow is a rendered form of beef or mutton fat, primarily made up of triglycerides. In industry, tallow is not strictly defined as beef or mutton fat. In this context, tallow is animal fat that conforms to certain technical criteria, inclu ...

County Waterford County Waterford ( ga, Contae Phort Láirge) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Munster and is part of the South-East Region. It is named after the city of Waterford. Waterford City and County Council is the local authority for ...

. It was erected on land owned by the

Earls of Desmond Earl of Desmond is a title in the peerage of Ireland () created four times. When the powerful Earl of Desmond took arms against Queen Elizabeth Tudor, around 1578, along with the King of Spain and the Pope, he was confiscated from his estates, ...

, which they acquired in the 1460s. The land was granted to Thomas fitz James FitzGerald, the illegitimised son of James fitzGerald, the 13th Earl of Desmond. Though it appears to be of 14th or 15th century construction, in reality it was built by Thomas in the mid-sixteenth century, likely between 1560 and 1561.

James fitzThomas fitzGerald James fitz Thomas FitzGerald, called the Súgán Earl (died 1608), was a pretender to the Earldom of Desmond who made his claim and led a rebellion after the last earl, Gerald FitzGerald, 14th Earl of Desmond had been killed in 1583. The pretend ...

, known as the Earl, was the last of the fitzGerald's to reside in Conna Castle. James fitzThomas briefly took a leading role in the

Nine Years War The Nine Years' War (1688–1697), often called the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg, was a conflict between France and a European coalition which mainly included the Holy Roman Empire (led by the Habsburg monarc ...

, before being captured and imprisoned in the

Tower of London The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is sepa ...

, which marked the end of the reign of the Earls of Desmond.

17th century

The castle was captured by James Tuchet, the 3rd Earl of Castlehaven in 1645. In 1653, the castle was burned in an accidental fire.

19th century

The castle entered state care in the 19th century. It's donation to the Local Government Board of Ireland by Alfred G.K. L'Estrange was the first bequest of its kind in the history of the state.

20th century – present

During the 1980s and 1990s, Conna Castle was used as an outdoor concert venue. The castle was closed to the public by the

Office of Public Works The Office of Public Works (OPW) ( ga, Oifig na nOibreacha Poiblí) (legally the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland) is a major Irish Government agency, which manages most of the Irish State's property portfolio, including hundreds of ow ...

in 2015 to carry out restorative works, and it remains closed as of March 2022. Local politicians have spoken out against the length of the closure.

Architecture

Conna castle is a

style castle. It is five storeys tall, and largely intact. To the northwest of the castle stand the remains of a

corner tower Corner may refer to: People * Corner (surname) * House of Cornaro, a noble Venetian family (''Corner'' in Venetian dialect) Places * Corner, Alabama, a community in the United States * Corner Inlet, Victoria, Australia * Corner River, a tributar ...

and a

bawn A bawn is the defensive wall surrounding an Irish tower house. It is the anglicised version of the Irish word ''bábhún'' (sometimes spelt ''badhún''), possibly meaning "cattle-stronghold" or "cattle-enclosure".See alternative traditional ...

References

Notes

Sources

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