Durhamstown Castle is a 600-year-old

towerhouse 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, to command and defend strategic points ...

in the townland of Durhamstown of the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

Ardbraccan Ardbraccan () is an ancient place of worship in County Meath, Ireland. It is the location of the former residence of the Roman Catholic, then, after the Reformation, the Church of Ireland Bishop of Meath. it was also a place of prominence in pr ...

which is in the

barony (Ireland) In Ireland, a barony (, plural ) is a historical subdivision of a counties of Ireland, county, analogous to the hundred (county subdivision), hundreds into which the counties of England were divided. Baronies were created during the Tudor recon ...

of Lower Navan, in

County Meath County Meath ( ; or simply , ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, within the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. It is bordered by County Dublin to the southeast, County ...

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 ...

. It has been inhabited continuously since 1420. It is named after a Mr. Dorream (or Mr. Dorram), whose family lived there in 1511, and has been converted into a guest house and restaurant. Although the precise origins of the building are unknown, the existing castle is believed to date from the early 15th century. The building is of four storeys and the ground floor has four vaulted chambers with inserted windows. A square tower with a pointed door which opens to a spiral staircase can be found at its east wall. There are three tall chimneys clustering at the north end of the nave. There is believed to have originally been another storey which was knocked down as a result of a fire. A 19th-century single-storey wing has been added to the north of the old house. In the 16th century the building was owned by The 1st Earl of Essex,

Lord Deputy of Ireland The Lord Deputy was the representative of the monarch and head of the Irish executive (government), executive under English rule, during the Lordship of Ireland and then the Kingdom of Ireland. He deputised prior to 1523 for the Viceroy of Ireland ...

under Queen Elizabeth I of England and Ireland. In the 17th century Sir Roger Jones-Lord Ranallagh lived there, whose son Arthur, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, was involved in a scandal whereby the entire Irish Exchequer was diverted to pay for the mistresses of Charles II. During the 18th century its occupants were Thompsons and during the 19th the Roberts family. It is currently owned by Dave and Sue Prickett, who bought it in 1996 and run it as a guest house and restaurant.

References

Theposhnoshclub.com - History
(archived) {{coord, 53.6540380, -6.7889340, type:landmark_region:IE, display=title Castles in County Meath Houses in County Meath

See also

References