Dardistown Castle

Old Drogheda Society

Old Drogheda Society members and friends on a visit to Dardistown Castle.

 

Recently members of the Old Drogheda Society visited Dardistown Castle. Now one of those who made the trip, local historian Brendan Matthews, offers a brief historical background to the castle.

Dardistown Tower House was constructed in 1465 by a man named Thomas Cornwalsh, who was related through marriage to the Talbot family of Malahide Castle and before the close of the 15th century the Talbots were resident at Dardistown.

They remained there until 1690 when, following the Battle of the Boyne, they lost possession of both castle and lands at Dardistown. The place was then the residence of the Osborne family who remained there until 1970. The place was then taken over by the Armstrong family until 1987 and then it became the family home of the Allen family, who are from the Drogheda area.

Also attached to the tower house or castle at Dardistown is a stately house, the first part of which was erected during the mid 16th century, added to in the Georgian period of around 1770 and an extension built on in 1800 with an upper storey added around 1860. When the castle, or more commonly called a tower house, was constructed in 1465, it, like all the others that were built within the Pale, was known as a `£10`castle, because a grant of £10 was given towards its construction. The reason was to protect the Pale and the `lords`within it, while England was heavily involved in the war of the Roses, which ended in 1485.

The Battle of Julianstown was fought close to the castle grounds in November 1641. Under the Great Phelim O`Neill, the O`Donnells, McMahons, O`Hanlons, Maguires, Rory O`More and Myles the Slasher O`Reilly, some 650 English soldiers, who were heading from Dublin to the relief of the siege at Drogheda by the Northern Insurgents, were ambushed here. Only 50 soldiers managed to escape, the rest falling foe to the Insurgents. 

During the 19th and early 20th century there was a brick factory or mill adjacent to Dardistown castle and many buildings in Drogheda are built of the D.ardistown brick

 

Old Drogheda Society - History, Archaeology & Heritage,

Millmount, Drogheda, Co. Louth, Ireland. Tel. 041-9833097