Ireland · Restored
Redwood Castle
Redwood Castle is a Norman tower house near Lorrha in County Tipperary, Ireland, built around 1200 and long held by the Mac Aodhagáin (Egan) family as a seat and school of learning. It was burned and confiscated c.1650, lay as a ruin for centuries, and was purchased and renovated in 1972; it remains a privately owned, protected structure that opens to the public at times.
First raised
1210
Its prime
1600
Today
Restored
As it stood in 1600
The shape it held in its prime.
A tall, rectangular four-storey stone tower house with a pronounced battered base and relatively flat facades punctured by small rectangular mullioned windows and narrow arrow slits. The upper corners show corbelled round bartizans and crenellated parapets; one gabled roofline is visible behind the parapet. Walls are dressed local sandstone with a warm yellow-brown colour and rough tooling. The castle stands alone on a low rise in open farmland with a gravel approach.
Its story
The story of Redwood Castle.
Redwood Castle — Egan Castle, or Caisleán Choillte Rua in Irish — was built by the Normans around 1200 near Lorrha in County Tipperary and occupied by them until about 1350, when the Mac Aodhagáin (MacEgan) family were installed on the lands. Hereditary Brehons, or lawyers, the Mac Aodhagáin established a school of learning here, patronised by the family for several hundred years.
Enlarged and renovated several times from 1350, the castle combines thick original stone walls with a murder-hole and a rarer Sheela na gig. The Egan families held it in continuous occupation until about 1650, when it was confiscated and burned at the time of the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland; the site then lay in ruin for over 300 years, with only the thick exterior walls standing.
In 1972 Michael J. Egan, a County Mayo lawyer, purchased and renovated the building. It remains a private residence — required to open to the public at times in summer under heritage tax-relief terms — and a protected structure. Clan Egan rallies, held in different countries typically every two years, have repeatedly included gatherings at Redwood, described as the clan's ancestral home.
Step inside
7 places to explore in 1600.
The record describes 7 distinct spots at Redwood Castle — including 2 interiors: entrance passage with murder-hole, mac aodhag e1in school chamber. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and walk through every one — more scenes means more photos, more angles and more rooms of the immersive experience.
Create History
Recreate Redwood Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1600 — a photoreal walk that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
Recreate Castle to Explore →Whose castle
Clans who held Redwood Castle.
The families that held Redwood Castle for a decade or more across its history — follow a name to its clan.
Egan
Held by the Mac Aodhagáin (Egan) family from c.1350 until confiscated and burned c.1650; repurchased and restored by Michael J. Egan in 1972.
