castles historical laois

The remnants of a once great Norman castle built either by the Marshalls or the Fitzgeralds. A castle is mentioned in 1203 as already existing, but this probably refers to an earlier castle here. O'More burned the castle in 1346, and in 1422 O'Dempsey captured it from the Earl of Kildare. The O'Dempseys retained the castle until it was taken from them in 1452 by the Earl of Ormond. Silken Thomas Fitzgerald retreated here during his rebellion in 1535.

In 1556 it was mortgaged for...

Originally used as a fort in Early Christian times, this is one of the most superbly and strategically sited castles in the country; it is unfortunate that its state of preservation does not match its siting. On the arrival of the Normans, the site was in the hands of Dermot McMurrough Kavanagh.

Through his marriage with Eva, it fell into the hands of his father-in-law Strongbow, and then through his daughter Isabella to William Marshall. The castle is first mentioned in 1215 when...

An example of a seventeenth-century market town. The ruins of Ballinakill Castle are of a late seventeenth-century castle built by the Dunnes (but never inhabited) on the site of one destroyed by Cromwellian troops under Fairfax. The configuration of streets around the large rectangular square is eighteenth century.

The town's entrance from Abbeyleix is marked by two trees known as Toll Trees where a toll was paid by visitors to the town. The town had important fairs, a brewery, wo...

Ballaghmore Castle (1480) was the chief seat of the Mac Gillpatricks (Fitzpatricks) Lords of the Upper Ossory. It's strategically placed on the Bealach Mor, the great road to Munster. Partially destroyed by Cromwellians in 1647 it came into possession of the Cootes who leased it to the Elys. Richard Ely, financed by a hoard of gold found on his land, partially restored it in the 1830s. Ely was murdered by a tenant, and the castle was neglected.

It was bought by the present owners...