Portlick Castle
Portlick Castle is a late-medieval tower house on the shores of Lough Ree near Glasson, County Westmeath, Ireland. It consists of a square four-storey medieval stone tower attached to a two-storey Georgian residential wing and a projecting three-storey Victorian castellated tower added in 1860, producing a twin-tower frontage. The building was badly burned in 1861, restored in the late 20th century, and is today a privately owned, restored residence.
Its prime
1860
Today
Restored
As it stood in 1860
What Portlick Castle looked like in its prime.
A compact square late-medieval four-storey stone tower rises beside a lower two-storey Georgian residential wing, while a later three-storey Victorian castellated tower projects at the front, producing a twin-tower façade. The taller medieval tower juxtaposes with the horizontal Georgian block to form a stepped roofline, the Victorian addition marked by its castellated parapet. The group sits directly on the shore of Lough Ree, with the nearby medieval motte visible in the landscape.
Its story
The story of Portlick Castle.
Portlick Castle stands on the shores of Lough Ree near Glasson, County Westmeath, about six miles from Athlone. After the initial invasion of 1169, Sir Henry de Leon, who accompanied Prince John to Ireland, was granted large areas of land in Westmeath; a branch of the Dillons received the lands of Portlick, probably raised the nearby motte as their first fortification, and later built the square four-storey medieval tower.
The castle was granted to Thomas Keightly, a member of King William's privy council, who sold it to William Palmer of Dublin; the grant was repudiated, the property repossessed by the crown and sold in 1703 to the Reverend Robert Smyth, whose family lived at Portlick until 1955. A Georgian wing and, in 1860, a projecting Victorian castellated tower gave the house its twin-tower frontage, badly burned on 17 July 1861, with thousands of pounds of plate, furniture and books lost.
Uninhabitable when bought in 1988 by the Australian poet Luke Whitington, an art patron and experienced restorer of derelict buildings in Italy, it was restored and let as a private residence; in early 2021 the castle was sold to an Irish-American family from California.
Step inside
6 places to explore in 1860.
The record describes 6 distinct spots at Portlick 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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Recreate Portlick Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1860, a photoreal reconstruction that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
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Clans who held Portlick Castle.
The families that held Portlick Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Dillon
A branch of the Dillons held the lands of Portlick from the Anglo-Norman grant.
Held by the Smyth family from 1703 until 1955.
