Ireland · Still standing
Dardistown Castle
Caisleán Bhaile an Dairdisigh
Dardistown Castle is a stone tower-house composed of a three-storey rectangular central block flanked by two projecting square towers and an attached domestic range. It sits behind a broad gravel forecourt and is set beside an adjoining ivy-clad building. The surviving fabric visible in the photo is of rough grey rubble masonry with inserted sash windows and an accessible parapet walk at the top of the towers.
Its prime
1620
Today
Still standing
As it stood in 1620
What Dardistown Castle looked like in its prime.
A flat-fronted, three-storey rectangular central block flanked symmetrically by two projecting square towers rising to a crenellated parapet and walkway. Walls are rough grey rubble stone with narrow vertical slits and later vertical sash windows inserted into the central face. The roofline is defined by a low battlemented parapet; people can stand on the parapet walk. The castle opens onto a broad gravel forecourt and is joined on the west side to a lower, ivy-covered building with tall sash windows.
Its story
The story of Dardistown Castle.
Dardistown Castle was built in 1465 by John Cornwalsh, Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, with a building grant. The four-storey tower is square, about 44 feet to a side and 50 feet high, with a turret at each corner, three holding vaulted rooms, the fourth an anti-clockwise spiral stair leading to a parapet walk. In the 16th century Dame Jenet Sarsfield, widow of Robert Plunkett, 5th Baron of Dunsany, and of Sir John Plunket of Dunsoghly Castle, added a new entrance and other extensions.
The castle later came into the hands of the Osborne family, who occupied it until recently. Henry Osborne (died 1828), who also owned the Cooperhill Brickworks that supplied red brick to many of Drogheda's buildings, bought a horse pulling a stagecoach in 1827, it later gave birth to Abd-El-Kader, winner of successive Grand Nationals in 1850 and 1851 for his trainer son Joseph.
Residential ranges grew around the medieval tower: a front hall, drawing room and dining room around 1750, further extensions about 1800, and the frontage of 1860 that gives the house its Victorian face. By 2003 the castle was owned by Lizanne Allen.
Step inside
5 places to explore in 1620.
The record describes 5 distinct spots at Dardistown Castle, including the full exterior approach. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
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Clans who held Dardistown Castle.
The families that held Dardistown Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Cornwalsh
Built in 1465 by John Cornwalsh, Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer.
Osborne
The Osbornes held Dardistown for generations until recent times; Henry Osborne (d. 1828) also ran the Cooperhill Brickworks.
Nearby
