Ireland · Partial ruin
King John's Castle
Caisleán Rí Eoin
King John's Castle (Carlingford Castle) is a medieval D-shaped enclosure castle standing on the harbour at Carlingford, County Louth, Ireland. Built from the late 12th century with an east wing added in the 13th century, it features thick stone curtain walls, a west gatehouse with a square flanking tower, and a large rectangular hall in the east wing. It is a designated National Monument.
Its prime
1261
Today
Partial ruin
As it stood in 1261
What King John's Castle looked like in its prime.
A D-shaped, grey-brown stone enclosure castle sited on a low rocky headland at the harbour edge, with massive curtain walls roughly 3.4 m thick. The west wing shows the remains of a gatehouse and a square flanking tower; the east wing contains the ruinous shell of a large rectangular two-storey hall above a basement. The curtain wall is pierced by deep embrasures and narrow arrow-slits; roofs are absent and the silhouette is a ragged line of broken battlements and tall arched openings above a quay and modern harbour buildings.
Its story
The story of King John's Castle.
The west wing of Carlingford Castle was built in the late 12th century by Hugh de Lacy, Lord of Meath, shortly after the Norman invasion of Ireland. It acquired the name "King John's Castle" after King John, Lord of Ireland, supposedly stayed there for three days in 1210, during the expedition in which he invaded Ulster to apprehend Hugh de Lacy, 1st Earl of Ulster.
The castle is a D-shaped enclosure with walls 3.4 metres thick, its western curtain holding a gatehouse, a square flanking tower and deep embrasures with narrow arrowslits; the 13th-century east wing contains a large rectangular hall of two main floors over a basement.
War returned in the 17th century. During the Irish Confederate Wars the castle was held by the Irish Catholic Confederation, then taken in turn by Sir Henry Tichborne in 1642, Murrough O'Brien, 1st Earl of Inchiquin in 1649 and Charles Coote, 1st Earl of Mountrath in 1650. In the Williamite War it was fired on by Jacobites in 1689 and used as a Williamite hospital by the Duke of Schomberg before the Battle of the Boyne. It is now a National Monument.
Step inside
8 places to explore in 1261.
The record describes 8 distinct spots at King John's Castle, including 2 interiors: east wing great hall (interior), basement under the east hall. 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 King John's Castle.
The families that held King John's Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
de Lacy
Built in the late 12th century by Hugh de Lacy, Lord of Meath, after the Norman invasion of Ireland.
