There are over 30,000 castles and castle ruins all over the Irish landscape, with the oldest dating back to the 11th century. They can be found in all counties and each castle or ruin has a unique, superlative, and defining reason to be on the must-see list.
Swords Castle
Swords Castle is located in the center of Swords about 15 km north of the city of Dublin. The castle was built as the residential residence of the Archbishop of Dublin. It was commissioned by Archbishop John Comin, who was a former Benedictine monk. It took 400 long years to finally complete the construction of the castle.
At its largest extent Swords Castle comprised a gatehouse, apartments for knights and squires, a chapel, Archbishops’ apartments, rooms for friars, a banqueting hall, the North Tower, the Constables Tower, the West Towers, and various medieval farm buildings.
In its time Swords Castle would have been a spectacular edifice, standing most majestic beside the river Ward. And from the castle, the archbishops’ would have presided as veritable feudal lords, not only overseeing the Swords estate but administering temporal justice as well.
The castle has changed a couple of owners over the years. From the Archbishop who decided to leave this place and went to build a new castle in Tallaght, to various wealthy families. It was even occupied by Dutch Protestants.
And catholic tenants, who had leased the land from the archbishops, now got the opportunity to purchase it, provide they were in a financial position to do so. The castle was at that time in a sad state of neglect, and although the massive structure of the curtain walls remained basically intact, the apartments within, including the archbishop’s chapel had succumbed. The area enclosed by the curtain walls in fact being used as an orchard in 1838.
In 1976 the castle was purchased by Fingal County Council. The long term plan for the castle by Fingal County Council is to fully restore and show the castle off in all it's restored glory.
The newly renovated castle was used as a film location for the hit series The Vikings in 2018, and in the spring of 2010, the producers of another hit series, The Tudors, and now again stands sentinel over the ever-burgeoning town of Swords and hopefully will do so for many a year to come. Thanks for reading the article I hope you liked it, and we’ll read on in the next one. 😀😀
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