Ireland · Restored
Tyrrellspass Castle
Tyrrellspass Castle is a medieval Irish tower house in Tyrrellspass, County Westmeath, dating to circa 1411. It is the surviving seat of the Tyrrell family and was later restored and converted to a restaurant. The building is a stone tower house with attached domestic range and crenellated roofline.
Its prime
1411
Today
Restored
As it stood in 1411
What Tyrrellspass Castle looked like in its prime.
A roughly 20-metre-high rectangular tower house of grey-brown rubble stone with a crenellated parapet crowning a flat roofline; narrow vertical slit windows punctuate the elevations. The ground level features an arched entrance with a murder-hole above. To the tower's right is a lower two-storey domestic block with a pitched roof abutting the tower. The structure sits on low-lying farmland beside the village approach and appears complete with intact battlements and roof in its prime.
Its story
The story of Tyrrellspass Castle.
The Tyrrells of Fartullagh and the Battle of 1597
Tyrrellspass Castle dates from around 1411 and is the only castle of the Tyrrells still standing; the family had come to Ireland about the time of the Norman invasion. It follows the general pattern of the tower house, stone-built and essentially defensive, a series of superimposed chambers some 20 metres high, with a murder-hole beside the entrance door through which intruders could be attacked.
Tyrrellspass is the modern name for Fartullagh, where in 1597 Captain Richard Tyrrell, a chief ally of Hugh O'Neill in the Nine Years' War, won a major victory over English crown forces in the action since known as the Battle of Tyrrellspass.
Cromwell's Invasion and the Earls of Belvedere, 1650–1850
During the Cromwellian invasion of 1650 the occupants of the castle are said to have suffered a great deal, and many of them to have been executed. The castle and the land around it were acquired soon afterwards by the Rochfort family, who became the Earls of Belvedere. In 1796 the 2nd earl leased the castle to the army for use as a barracks. In 1850 ownership passed to Charles Brinsley Marlay, grandson of the 1st earl's only daughter.
Howard-Bury, Ginnell and the Castle Restaurant
From Marlay the castle passed to Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Howard-Bury, the explorer, who sold off the houses on the estate. After a tumultuous history of intrusion it was extensively restored in the 1970s by the Mullingar architect Philip Ginnell, and became his family residence. The building was converted into a restaurant in the early 1990s and now operates as Tyrrellspass Castle Restaurant, hosting medieval banquets; the original spiral staircase survives, and one of the original roof beams, dating from 1280, is left exposed in the lounge.
Step inside
5 places to explore in 1411.
The record describes 5 distinct spots at Tyrrellspass Castle, including 2 interiors: interior spiral staircase, great hall with exposed roof beam. 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 Tyrrellspass Castle with AI to explore it.
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Clans who held Tyrrellspass Castle.
The families that held Tyrrellspass Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Tyrrell
Seat of the Tyrrells from c.1411, the only remaining castle of the family, who came to Ireland around the time of the Norman invasion.
Rochfort
Held by the Rochfort family, Earls of Belvedere; the 2nd earl leased the castle to the army as a barracks in 1796.
