greencastle castle

When built in the mid 13th century, the castle consisted of a strong rectangular, two-storey tower with reinforced corners and a stout irregularly shaped curtain wall with rounded corner towers. Only fragments survive of the curtain wall, which was further defended outside by a rock-cut ditch, from which stone was quarried for the construction of the castle.

The fortress was stormed by the Irish in 1260 and again in 1375, but also by Edward Bruce in 1316. To make it more easily defendable, a further storey was added to the tower in the 15th century, when the ground floor was sub-divided into three barrel-vaulted chambers. In 1505, the castle was granted to Gerald, the great Earl of Kildare, and further alterations carried out during the same century included the enlargement of the upper windows and the provision of a new door in the west wall with a musket loop in the lintel.