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Sites and Monuments Record · Ireland

Castle - Anglo-Norman masonry castle

County Dublin, Ireland

Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915) covering the location of Castle - Anglo-Norman masonry castle, County Dublin, with a pin at the register's coordinates
Ordnance Survey six-inch map, 2nd edition (1888–1915), covering this location. Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland. The pin is ours, placed from the register's coordinates.

The record

County
Dublin
Country
Ireland
Latest-edition OS map
Clontarf Castle
Coordinates
53.36481, -6.20703
SMR number
DU019-014001-

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

4 historical maps cover this location, the earliest the 1799 map "Ireland." (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries).

Historical maps covering this location

  • 1799 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1811 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1841 · Ireland. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
  • 1891 · Ireland 16 (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

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This record in the National Monuments Service's Historic Environment Viewer ↗

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a slight rise overlooking Dublin Bay just SW of a Church (DU019-015001-) and graveyard (DU019-015002-). The present castle is a Tudor-Revival House (1837) with a mock Norman keep attached, designed by Willliam Vitruvius Morrison. It occupies the site of a former castle associated in the 12th-century with Adam de Phephoe and later the Knights Hospitallers (Bence-Jones 1987, 87; Dawson 1976, 124-5, O'Donovan 1997, 17-18)). During the late 17th century the property passed to John Vernon, a quartermaster of Cromwell’s army in 1650. The Civil survey (1654-6) describes a castle with a stone house adjoining a stone bawn at Clontarf (Simington 1945, 176). Rocque's map (1760) shows a large rectangular bawn with circular bastions at the NW and NE angles, which was demolished in 1837. Excavations in 1996 revealed little evidence for the original castle except for a section of wall (W 2.6m) orientated N-S, which extends under the existing building (O'Donovan 1997, 17-18).

Compiled by Geraldine Stout

References

O'Donovan, E. 1997b Clontarf castle, Clontarf. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 1996: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 17-18. Bray. Wordwell.

Simington, R.C. (ed.) 1945 The Civil survey, AD 1654-1656. Vol. VII: county of Dublin. Dublin. Irish Manuscripts Commission.

Dawson, T. 1976 The Road To Howth. Dublin Historical Record 29, 122-32.

Bence-Jones, M. 1978 Burke's Guide to Country Houses: Volume 1 Ireland. London. Burke's Peerage Ltd.

Nearby in the register

Other entries of the same register within about three miles of this one, by straight line.

Sites and Monuments Record data: National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland, licensed under CC BY 4.0. Record text is reproduced unchanged. National Monuments Service, Government of Ireland · CC BY 4.0
All Castle - Anglo-Norman masonry castle in Dublin All County Dublin records All Ireland Heritage registers Historical markers (US)National Register of Historic Places (US)
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