Ireland · Restored
Roscrea Castle
Roscrea Castle is a medieval motte-and-bailey stone castle in the town of Roscrea, County Tipperary, Ireland. The surviving ensemble comprises a high rectangular three-storey gate building with crow-stepped gables, two three-quarter round towers, curtain walls around a roughly 40-metre-wide courtyard, and later-period domestic buildings including Damer House within the grounds.
Its prime
1730
Today
Restored
As it stood in 1730
What Roscrea Castle looked like in its prime.
Massive grey limestone curtain walls form a roughly 40-metre courtyard ringed by a ditch; the north side is dominated by a rectangular three-storey gate building about 27 metres high with crow-stepped gables and narrow vertical slits and lancet windows. Two three-quarter round towers stand at the south-west and south-east corners (the south-east tower rising higher to three storeys). Stone is roughly coursed; entrances sit beneath a barrel-vaulted passage and a former bascule bridge/portcullis opening; slate roofs cover later domestic additions.
Its story
The story of Roscrea Castle.
Roscrea Castle began as a 13th-century motte-and-bailey on land owned at the time by the Bishop of Killaloe. The original wooden castle was destroyed late in the century and replaced in stone, with more than £875 spent on the works between 1274 and 1295 under John de Lydyard, a 40-metre courtyard within curtain walls up to 2.5 metres thick, once ringed by a river to the east and a moat on the other sides.
In 1315 the castle was granted to the Butlers of Ormond, who held it until the 18th century; the present stone gate building, some 27 metres high, with bascule bridge, portcullis and a basement prison reached by trapdoor, was built by the 4th Earl of Ormond in the 15th century, and the Ormond Tower keeps a 17th-century plasterwork coat of arms. In 1703 the Duke of Ormonde sold the castle to the Royal Hospital Kilmainham; local merchant John Damer bought it in 1722, and it later passed to the Earl of Portarlington.
With the 18th-century Damer House and gardens inside its walls, the castle now forms part of Roscrea Heritage Centre, owned by Tipperary County Council and managed with the Roscrea Heritage Society, winner of a European Museum of the Year special award.
Step inside
11 places to explore in 1730.
The record describes 11 distinct spots at Roscrea Castle, including 5 interiors: barrel-vaulted entrance passage (portcullis/bascule position), basement prison under the gate tower, spiral staircase in the eastern corner 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 Roscrea 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 Roscrea Castle.
The families that held Roscrea Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Granted to the Butlers of Ormond in 1315 and held until the Duke of Ormonde sold it in 1703; the 4th Earl built the stone gate building in the 15th century.
Damer
Purchased by the merchant John Damer in 1722, later passing to the Earl of Portarlington.
