Ireland · Restored
Slane Castle
Caisleán Bhaile Shláine
Slane Castle is an 18th-century country-house-style castle on the River Boyne in County Meath, Ireland, and has been the Conyngham family seat since its rebuilding in the late 18th century. The present main block is a castellated stone mansion set within extensive demesne grounds that slope down towards the Boyne.
First raised
1785
Its prime
1785
Today
Restored
As it stood in 1785
What Slane Castle looked like in its prime.
Rectangular, three-storey grey-stone block with a crenellated parapet running along the roofline and prominent square corner towers; narrow vertical slit windows punctuate the tower faces while larger sash and traceried windows appear on the main elevations. A projecting curved bay with tracery sits on the river-facing front. Low stone boundary walls with battered coping enclose the forecourt and lawns that sweep down to the river valley. The entrance is set into a recessed arched opening on the west side.
Its story
The story of Slane Castle.
St Erc's Hermitage and the Healing Well
The castle stands above the River Boyne in County Meath, a few kilometres upstream from Newgrange and from the site of the Battle of the Boyne. Older layers survive on the eastward side of the demesne, between the river and the village church: the ruins of St Erc's Hermitage, a multi-storey chapel of the fifteenth century, and some five hundred metres west of it an ancient well. In the Cath Maige Tuireadh, one of the central texts of Irish mythology, the well is said to have been blessed by the god Dian Cecht so that the Tuatha Dé Danann could bathe in it and be healed of any mortal wound short of decapitation. With Christianity and the reinterpretation of pagan sites it took the name it carries now, Our Lady's Well.
The Last Fleming Lord of Slane
Before the overthrow of the House of Stuart in 1688 the castle belonged to the Flemings, a Hiberno-Norman family who took the Jacobite side in the War of the Grand Alliance; after the Williamite victory their property was chosen for confiscation. Christopher, 17th Baron Slane, whom Queen Anne created 1st Viscount Longford in 1713, was the last Fleming lord of the place, and died on 14 July 1726.
The Conynghams, from Donegal to Meath
The Conynghams were Ulster-Scots planted in Ireland in 1611, during the Plantation of Ulster, and their first hold was in County Donegal, around the village of Tamhnach an tSalainn near Donegal Town, which the then head of the family, Charles Conyngham, renamed Mountcharles after himself. They also held an extensive estate in west Donegal, particularly in The Rosses. Slane came to them through the Williamite Confiscations of 1701, and the land was first bought in 1703 by Brigadier-General Henry Conyngham; around that time the family moved their principal seat south from Ulster to Meath, where it has remained for more than three hundred years.
Gandon, Wyatt and Johnston, 1785
The castle in its present form was built from 1785 under the direction of William Burton Conyngham together with his nephew, the 1st Marquess Conyngham, and is principally the work of James Gandon, James Wyatt and Francis Johnston. Johnston also designed the gothic gates on the Mill Hill east of the castle. A fire in 1991 caused extensive damage and completely gutted the eastern section facing the Boyne; the castle reopened in 2001 at the end of a ten-year restoration programme. In 2003 a cannon associated with the castle was found in the river nearby.
The Natural Amphitheatre, from 1981
The ground of the demesne falls towards the Boyne in a natural amphitheatre, and since 1981 it has been used for concerts with a capacity of 80,000 people. They were launched by the then Earl of Mount Charles (1951–2025), then the castle's owner, who from March 2009 was the 8th Marquess Conyngham. Thin Lizzy, The Rolling Stones, U2, Queen, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Madonna are among those who have headlined at Slane, and in 1984 U2 took up residence in the castle to write and record The Unforgettable Fire. The seat has stayed in the family: the present owner is Alexander, 9th Marquess Conyngham.
Step inside
8 places to explore in 1785.
The record describes 8 distinct spots at Slane 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.
Build Your Own Castle
Recreate Slane Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1785, a photoreal reconstruction that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
Recreate this castle →Defend this castle →Whose castle
Clans who held Slane Castle.
The families that held Slane Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Fleming
The Hiberno-Norman Flemings held Slane until the Williamite era; Christopher, 17th Baron Slane, was the last Fleming Lord of Slane.
Conyngham
Seat of the Conyngham family since the Williamite Confiscations of 1701 and the building of the present castle in the late 18th century; now owned by Alexander, 9th Marquess Conyngham.
Nearby
