You’d think a city of Dublin wouldn’t be the place to hide a castle. Yet many Dublin natives had no idea what I was talking about when I mentioned Drimnagh castle. This article describes the history of one of Ireland’s few moated castles.

Before the castle

About 5000 years ago, Neolithic people created burial grounds in the area now known as Drimnagh¹.

There is a megalithic tomb not far from here in Kilmashogue.

The land was wild and rugged, sporting wild boar, wolves and deer¹. The Bronze Age settlers came next, followed by the Vikings¹. Vikings had invaded most of northern continental Europe as well as the British Isles and Ireland. It was a further Viking invasion led by Rollo that conquered northern France. He is better known in French history as Robert I of Normandy. The Normans then attacked and invaded England, before invading Ireland¹.

History

Hugo de Berneval was a Norman Knight who built the original castle in 1240². He was given the land called Drimnagh in 1215³ for services rendered to Lord Strongbow during the first invasion of Ireland². The land was prime real estate because it was on high ground, and outside the city of Dublin².

De Berneval anglicised his family name to Barnewall². His family continued to be involved in Irish matters for the next 400 years². In the process the family acquired land between Dirmagh and Balbriggan². The castle changed hands, first to Sir Adam Loftus in 1607 and then it passed from one family to another till 1904².

Mr Joseph Hatch bought it and spent a considerable amount refurbishing it till 1954 when he left it to the Christian Brothers². They used the castle but it soon fell into disrepair².

Current status

In the 1980s local residents set up a committee to restore and maintain the castle^{2 4}. It was Peter Pearson who created this committee after he discovered the castle was earmarked for destruction⁴. In June 1986 over 200 local tradespeople started restoring^{2 4}.

The whole restoration project took 5 years, and the castle is now open for events and to the public⁴. (The BBC series The Tudors was filmed here⁵.)

The castle isn’t visible from the busy Long Mile road which runs past it. If you know what you’re looking for, it is easy to find.

References

1. History; Drimnagh castle; (Retrieved 2020-04-09) [↩][↩][↩][↩]
2. One of the few moated castles in Ireland; Curious Ireland; (Retrieved 2020-04-09) [↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩][↩]
3. Barnewalls; Drimnagh castle; (Retrieved 2020-04-13) [↩]
4. Restoration; Drimnagh castle; (Retrieved 2020-04-09) [↩][↩][↩][↩]
5. Films; Drimnagh castle; (Retrieved 2020-04-13) [↩]

Remember: links were correct at time of publication.