Fanningstown Castle:
Other Information:
The Trinitarian Monastery | The Augustinian Priory | The Desmond Castle
The Franciscan Friary | The Village Park
Adare History - The Desmond Castle
The time-worn remains of this Anglo-Norman fortress stands on the bank of the "Maigue" river and viewable from the bridge. This castle was erected, within an ancient ring-fort, around the early part of the 13th century. It became a strategic fortress during the following turbulent years.
It was the property of the Earls of Kildare for nearly 300 years until the Silken Thomas's rebellion of 1536, when it was forfeited and granted to the Earls of Desmond (they gave the castle its present name). Barely forty years later, in 1578, the Munster Geraldines were themselves in rebellion and lost the castle to English troops after an eleven-day siege.
Attempts to retrieve the castle resulted in a series of notably bloody sieges in 1579, 1581 and 1600, leaving the fabric badly damaged. In 1657, it was dismantled by the Palliamentary forces of Oliver Cromwell.
The castle initially comprised a large square tower and an enclosing D-shaped fosse, together with a hall block to the south in an outer ward. The tower, notable for having corner turrets projecting from the side walls, was remodelled in the fifteenth century and is thus difficult to assess confidently, though it appears originally to have had three storeys with a first floor entrance. No doubt it served as the lord's accommodation and thus complemented the more public function of the Great Hall by the river, which was clearly built to entertain visitors: a spacious rectangular apartment with round-headed lights with roll mouldings.
At a later period its basement was subdivided and a latrine added on the south side. The curtain walls around the inner ward and along the west side of the outer ward were possibly built around 1240, no doubt replacing timber palisades. The inner ward has a south gate tower and an open-gorged bastion on the west side, while there is a square west-gate tower into the outer ward.
The very ruined aisled Great Hall, to the east of the old hall, may have been added in 1326 when the second Earl of Kildare undertook extensive works at the castle. It is flanked by kitchens and service rooms, which extend to the eastern perimeter of the outer ward - whose well-preserved battlemented walls may be largely fifteenth century in date.
In the early 19th century and in the years that followed, considerable repairs were implemented but full restoration was deemed, economically, to be impossible. However, the castle ruins remain of considerable extent and make an interesting and picturesque group of buildings. Extensive maintenance and renovation work has been carried out in recent years. The castle is regarded as being one of the most interesting examples of feudal architecture in Ireland.
Fanningstown Castle,
Adare, Co. Limerick, Ireland
Ph: +353-61-395989 Fax: +353-61-396325
Email: info@fanningstowncastle.com