Ireland · Restored
Johnstown Castle
Caisleán Bhaile Sheáín
Johnstown Castle is a 19th-century Gothic Revival country house built on the remains of a Norman tower house on a large demesne in County Wexford, Ireland. The estate includes pleasure grounds with artificial lakes, a stable yard and various service buildings; parts of the site now house the Irish Agricultural Museum and the house is managed for public access.
Its prime
1872
Today
Restored
As it stood in 1872
What Johnstown Castle looked like in its prime.
A four‑storey Gothic Revival country house of grey cut stone rising from a park, assembled on the remains of an earlier Norman tower house; the main block shows vertical mullioned and arched windows and a prominent arched entrance, with steep slate roofs and subordinate low service ranges. A long stone stable yard with round‑arched openings and circular oculi faces a broad gravel courtyard, and the south side opens onto pleasure grounds and two artificial lakes.
Its story
The story of Johnstown Castle.
The Esmonde Tower House and Cromwell's Camp, 1170s–1692
The first castle on the estate, 5.5 km south-west of Wexford town, was a tower house raised in the late 12th century by the Esmonde family, Normans who came to south-east Ireland from Lincolnshire in the 1170s after the Norman invasion of 1169. They built a second tower house at Rathlannon immediately to the south, which still stands. In 1649 Oliver Cromwell spent a night on the estate ahead of the sack of Wexford that October, and his Roundhead army used the land around Johnstown to prepare. The Esmondes, Catholics, were expelled during the Cromwellian years. Johnstown Castle was bought by the Grogan family in 1692.
Cornelius Grogan's Hanging and the Estate Restored, 1798–1810
Cornelius Grogan, then owner of Johnstown, served as commissary-general for the United Irishmen and was hanged for his part in the rebellion of 1798. In 1810 the estate was restored to his brother, John Knox Grogan.
Daniel Robertson's Gothic Revival Castle, 1836–1872
John Knox Grogan and his son Hamilton Knox Grogan-Morgan created Johnstown Castle as it stands today, built on the "bones" of the Norman tower house. Daniel Robertson designed the four-storey Gothic Revival castle and parts of the surrounding land, the building being finished over the years 1836 to 1872. By 1863 the demesne had been divided in two, with a deer park to the north and the castle, pleasure grounds, farm and two artificial lakes to the south. The Grogans later married into the FitzGerald family.
Airships, the Auction and the Act of 1945
During the First World War the Royal Naval Air Service based airships at Johnstown Castle, flown chiefly against the U-boat threat, with limited success. Lady Maurice FitzGerald — born Lady Adelaide Jane Frances Forbes in 1860, wife of Lord Maurice FitzGerald, son of Charles FitzGerald, 4th Duke of Leinster — was the last owner to live in the house. She died in November 1942.
The estate passed to her grandson, Maurice Victor Lakin, who looked to dispose of it. Wexford County Manager TD Sinnott recommended that the Minister for Agriculture, James Ryan, acquire the castle for use as an agricultural college. On 1 May 1944 the contents were sold at a public auction lasting five days, conducted by Jackson Stops & McCabe. On 17 October 1945 the Johnstown Castle Agricultural College Act was ratified and the castle and estate were formally handed over to the State by the family in lieu of death duties.
Soil Laboratories and the Irish Heritage Trust, since 1945
The Department of Agriculture took the castle over and fitted laboratories into it for research into soils, the work passing to An Foras Talúntais in 1959 and to Teagasc in 1988. The Irish Heritage Trust, a non-profit, refurbished the castle and opened it to the public in 2019, and conservation and restoration work continues there. The former stable yard houses the Irish Agricultural Museum.
Step inside
9 places to explore in 1872.
The record describes 9 distinct spots at Johnstown Castle, including 4 interiors: apostles' hall (principal interior hall), kitchens (service interior), servants' tunnel (service passage) and more. 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 Johnstown Castle with AI to explore it.
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Clans who held Johnstown Castle.
The families that held Johnstown Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Esmonde
The Esmondes, Normans from Lincolnshire, built the first tower house on the estate in the late 12th century.
Grogan
Bought by the Grogan family in 1692; the Grogans later married into the FitzGeralds.
Lady Maurice FitzGerald was the last owner to live in the house before the estate passed to the State in 1945.
