castles historical louth

Castle: This is a 15th or 16th century tower-house of 3 storeys, and with good trefoil headed windows. Its most unusual feature is the excellent corbelled roof (in the same technique as the Newgrange chamber roof, 4,000 years older!) which is on the third storey. The famous antiquarian Ussher lived nearby for some time. It was repaired by Captain Brabazon in 1641. A bawn with rounded turret which belonged to the castle has disappeared. High Cross: In the graveyard of St. Fechin's Church...

King John's Castle: Allegedly founded by King John who stayed here for three days in 1210, the castle may have been begun some years previously by Hugh de Lacy. The semicircular western half of the castle was probably built before King John's visit. This curving wall, which enclosed an open courtyard, had two-storey buildings leaning against its inner face; the entrance, on the west side, was flanked by two rectangular towers (only parts of the northern tower remain) and at the south-wester...

A smaller, but older, medieval tower house than Ardee Castle. It was given by Cromwell to the Hatch family. It is still used as a residence and contains two eighteenth century cannons at its entrance....

It is said that in 1236 Rohesia de Verdun fortified a castle here on her own lands 'which none of her predecessors had been able to do'. Legend says that she promised herself in marriage to the architect if she liked the castle when it was built. But when he came to claim her hand as a reward, she had him thrown out of the window - an explanation for one of the windows which is still called 'the murder window'! But old legend notwithstanding, the castle was probably built by Rohesia's son Joh...

A well-preserved tower-house of 15th century date. It has four storeys, and the bottom one is vaulted. There are also some nicely carved trefoil-headed windows. There is a fine 'murder-hole' above the door enabling the defenders to drop things on the heads of intruders. One of the unusual features of the castle are the two turrets, one containing stairs, the other a lavatory, which project from the sides of two diagonally opposite corners....

The castle was founded by Roger de Peppard in 1207, but much of the present building does not go back beyond the 15th century. In the 15th and 16th centuries it was used for attacks on Ulster, and two English Lord Deputies, Stanley (1414) and the White Earl of Ormond (1452), died here on such expeditions. After the Restoration, it was granted to Theobald Taffe, Earl of Carlingford....