Ireland · Restored
Slade Castle
Slade Castle is a late medieval tower house and adjoining two-storey hall on the Hook Peninsula in County Wexford, Ireland. Primarily built by the Laffin family in the late 15th and 16th centuries, it served as a fortified residence overlooking Bannow Bay and Waterford Harbour and was later restored in the 20th century as a National Monument.
Its prime
1550
Today
Restored
As it stood in 1550
What Slade Castle looked like in its prime.
A squat four-storey rectangular tower attached to a lower two-storey rectangular hall, both rising from an unadorned stone base. The tower terminates in a crenellated parapet with characteristic Irish-style merlons; narrow slit windows pierce the thick walls. The hall carries a matching crenellated roofline and a large west-end fireplace. The main entrance is set beneath a projecting machicolation and murder-hole. The castle sits close to the shoreline, facing Bannow Bay and Waterford Harbour, fully roofed and intact.
Its story
The story of Slade Castle.
The original fort at Slade was built by the Laffan family in the late 15th century, on the Hook Peninsula overlooking Bannow Bay and Waterford Harbour — views that mattered for defence. The earliest part is the four-storey tower, with vaulted ceilings on the ground and third floors and Irish crenellations on the parapet; the entrance doorway is protected by a machicolation and murder-hole, and a fireplace and garderobe survive on the second level.
The adjoining hall is two storeys tall, its entrance likewise guarded by a murder-hole, with a large fireplace at the west end, an oubliette in the south wall and a mural staircase to the upper floor. The three ground-floor rooms of the tower cannot be entered from the living quarters above and may have been used as warehouses. Restored in the 20th century, Slade Castle is a National Monument.
Step inside
10 places to explore in 1550.
The record describes 10 distinct spots at Slade Castle — including 6 interiors: tower ground-floor vaulted room (storage), tower third-floor vaulted chamber, tower second-floor living room with fireplace and garderobe and more. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and walk through every one — more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
Create History
Recreate Slade Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1550 — a photoreal walk that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
Recreate this castle →Whose castle
Clans who held Slade Castle.
The families that held Slade Castle for a decade or more across its history — follow a name to its clan.
Laffan
Built by the Laffan family in the late 15th century; their fortified residence through the 16th.
