TRIM CASTLE.

Over the New Year I met up with a couple of old college friends in Trim, Co Meath. While there, I managed to snap a few photographs of "Trim Castle", the largest of its type in Ireland. We spent an enjoyable Saturday afternoon wandering the grounds, sadly it was a typical dark, wet January day in Ireland and the photographs are not great. Those of you with a keen eye may notice that this is the very same castle that was used in the filming of Mel Gibson's movie "Braveheart". 

This site was originally chosen because it was on raised ground, overlooking an important fording point on the River Boyne. The Norman leader Hugh De Lacy took possession of the land in 1172 and built a huge ringwork castle defended by a stout double palisade and external ditch. A few of the images on the signs below will give you an idea of how the castle looked during its heyday.

The plan is to revisit this area in the summer as it is not far from "Navan Hill fort", one of the great royal sites of pre christian gaelic Ireland as well as the location for the "Battle of the Boyne", one of the most famous military encounters in Irish history.

ROSCOMMON CASTLE.

Been a while since a blog update, largely because I have been on holidays. While in Roscommon I took the following snaps of Roscommon Castle. Built by the Norman Robert de Ufford in 1269, it was rather imposing and located in a wonderful park. De Uffort justiciciar of Ireland built the castle on lands he had seized from the Augustinian Priory.  It  was besieged by the Connacht King Aodh O'Connor in 1272 and eight years later it was again in the hands of the English garrison, and fully restored. By 1340 the O'Connors regained possession of it, and held it for two centuries until 1569, when it fell into the hands of Sir Henry Sidney, Lord Deputy. In 1641 the Parliamentarian faction gained it until Confederate Catholics under Preston captured it in 1645. It remained in Irish hands until 1652 when it was partially blown up by Cromwellian "Ironsides" who had all the fortifications dismantled. It was finally burned down in 1690 and  gradually fell into decay. 

View from inside the walls.

What the castle would have looked like in its prime.