Ireland · Still standing
Barretstown Castle
Barretstown Castle is a country house-style castle in Ballymore Eustace, County Kildare, Ireland, built on the site of a late 12th-century Anglo-Norman stronghold. The present building shows medievalising, asymmetrical massing and a crenellated tower; it is set in parkland and today houses the Barretstown camp for children.
Its prime
1967
Today
Still standing
As it stood in 1967
What Barretstown Castle looked like in its prime.
Compact, asymmetrical stone house with a short, square crenellated tower set against lower gabled ranges with slate roofs; walls are pale rubble stone partly covered in climbing ivy (often red in autumn) and punctuated by a prominent arched entrance and a painted red main door. The castle sits back from a sweeping gravel drive within wooded parkland of specimen trees, with an open forecourt lawn and, to the front, a man-made lake added in the 20th century.
Its story
The story of Barretstown Castle.
Barretstown Castle stands on the site of a late 12th-century Anglo-Norman castle at Ballymore Eustace, County Kildare. Its first historical mention is a 1547 inquisition after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, which listed it as property of the Archbishop of Dublin — from whom the Crown promptly confiscated it. Thereafter it was held by the Eustace family on a series of "permanent leases".
In the 17th century Sir Walter Borrowes married a daughter of the Earl of Kildare and acquired the estate, which his family kept for over 200 years; Sir Erasmus Borrowes, 8th Baronet, remodelled the house in a romantic, asymmetrical medieval style. After the Borrowes family left Ireland, the Scotsman Sir George Sheppard Murray bought Barretstown in 1918, converting the estate into a stud farm and planting the exotic trees that still dominate the landscape.
Elizabeth Arden acquired the castle from the Murrays in 1962; after her death in 1967 the biscuit magnate Garfield Weston took up residence, and the Weston family presented the estate to the Irish government in 1977. Used for a time for conferences and by the Irish National Stud, it now hosts the Barretstown camp for sick children.
Step inside
6 places to explore in 1967.
The record describes 6 distinct spots at Barretstown Castle — including the full exterior approach. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and walk through every one — more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
Create History
Recreate Barretstown Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1967 — a photoreal walk that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
Recreate this castle →Whose castle
Clans who held Barretstown Castle.
The families that held Barretstown Castle for a decade or more across its history — follow a name to its clan.
Eustace
Held by the Eustace family on a series of permanent leases after 1547.
Borrowes
Held by the Borrowes baronets for over 200 years, from the 17th century until 1918.
Held by the Murray family, 1918–1962, who ran the estate as a stud farm.
The Weston family held Barretstown from 1967 until presenting it to the Irish state in 1977.
Nearby
