Ireland · Still standing
Drishane Castle
Caisleán an Driseáin
Drishane Castle is a complex consisting of a 15th-century MacCarthy tower house and an adjacent 18th-century stone house in County Cork, Ireland. The tower is a four-storey, 22-metre high square tower with narrow arrowslits and crenellations; the later house presents a regular multi-bay stone façade and chimneys.
Its prime
1730
Today
Still standing
As it stood in 1730
What Drishane Castle looked like in its prime.
A square, four-storey stone tower roughly 22 m tall with narrow vertical arrowslits and Irish-style crenellations along the roofline, accompanied by a small circular turret at one flank. Beside the tower sits an 18th-century stone house with regular vertical windows, multiple brick chimneys and short castellated sections, roofed in pitched slate. The complex is set on short lawns and a gentle earthen mound with a gravel approach and low connecting curtain walls in grey-brown masonry.
Its story
The story of Drishane Castle.
The tower house at Drishane was built by the MacCarthy clan in the 15th century, a four-storey square tower rising 22 metres, with narrow arrowslits and crenellations, on the south bank of the Munster Blackwater near Millstreet. Owen MacCarthy still held the castle at his death in 1637, and though all MacCarthy lands were forfeit after the Irish Confederate Wars of 1641–53, they were restored to Donough MacCarty, 1st Earl of Clancarty, when Charles II regained the throne in 1660.
The land then fell to the Hollow Sword Blade Company, which sold it to Henry Wallis in 1709; the Wallises took full ownership in 1728 and built the adjacent 18th-century house, which itself came to be called the castle, holding Drishane until 1882, after which it was owned by Patrick Stack.
In 1909 Drishane became a convent of the Sisters of the Infant Jesus, who ran a boarding secondary school for girls until 1992, and in 1974 it served as the fictional Brede Abbey in the film version of In This House of Brede. Later bought by the Duggan family, it became a centre for asylum seekers. The tower house is a National Monument.
Step inside
7 places to explore in 1730.
The record describes 7 distinct spots at Drishane 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.
Build Your Own Castle
Recreate Drishane Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1730, a photoreal reconstruction that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
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Clans who held Drishane Castle.
The families that held Drishane Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Built by the MacCarthys in the 15th century; restored to Donough MacCarty, 1st Earl of Clancarty, in 1660.
Wallis
Held by the Wallis family from 1709 until 1882; they built the adjoining house.
