Robertstown Castle is a

fortified house A fortified house or fortified mansion is a type of building which developed in Europe during the Middle Ages, generally with significant fortifications added. During the earlier Roman Empire, Roman period it was common for wealthy landowner ...

and

National Monument A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a sp ...

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 ...

Location

Robertstown Castle is located in the grounds of Robertstown House, halfway between

Moynalty Moynalty () is a village in the north-west of County Meath in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is located at the junction of the R194 road, R194 and R164 road, R164 Regional road (Ireland), regional roads north of Kells, County Meath, Kells, n ...

and

Nobber Nobber (Irish language, Irish: ''an Obair'', "the work") is a village in north County Meath, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is on the Navan–Kingscourt road (R162 road, R162), about north of Navan. This places the village about from the M5 ...

. The castle was part of the O'Reilly family's holdings, until the land was sold upon the death of Valentine O'Reilly. The last O'Reillys to live in Robertstown House, adjacent to the castle, were Valentine & Kay O'Reilly & their children Stephanie, Pauline, Patricia, Charles, Joan, & Bernadette. Said children used to play in the castle in the 1940s and 50s, but now the ruins are protected from entry.

History

Robertstown Castle was built in the early 17th century, which would place its construction some years after the

Nine Years' War The Nine Years' War was a European great power conflict from 1688 to 1697 between Kingdom of France, France and the Grand Alliance (League of Augsburg), Grand Alliance. Although largely concentrated in Europe, fighting spread to colonial poss ...

. The north wing was added at a later date. One local legend, recorded in the 1930s by the

Irish Folklore Commission The Irish Folklore Commission () was set up in 1935 by the Irish Government to study and collect information on the folklore and traditions of Ireland. History Séamus Ó Duilearga (James Hamilton Delargy) founded ''An Cumann le Béaloideas Éir ...

, tells of a man named "Gutters" who lived in the castle ruins and fired his gun at random at passers-by. He was in turn shot by a priest

Building

Robertstown Castle is a

, three storeys high with square

bartizan A bartizan (an alteration of ''bratticing''), also called a guerite, ''garita'', or ''échauguette'', or spelled bartisan, is an overhanging turret projecting from the walls of late-medieval and early-modern fortifications from the early 14th c ...

s (projecting

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Optical microscope#Objective turret (revolver or revolving nose piece), Objective turre ...

s) on two opposite corners. These are supported on moulded

corbel In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal keyed into and projecting from a wall to carry a wikt:superincumbent, bearing weight, a type of bracket (architecture), bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in t ...

ling similar to that found in

Scottish castles Castles are buildings that combine fortifications and residence, and many were built within the borders of modern Scotland. They arrived in Scotland with the introduction of feudalism in the twelfth century. Initially these were wooden motte-an ...

. The castle shows keyhole-shaped loopholes. The

ground floor A storey (Commonwealth English) or story (American English), is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). Plurals for the word are ''storeys'' (UK, CAN) and ''storie ...

contains a series of vaulted rooms and the first floor has three rooms.

References

National monuments in County Meath Castles in County Meath Fortified houses {{Ireland-castle-stub