Trim Castle

Trim Castle ( _ga. Caisleán Bhaile Atha Troim), Trim, County Meath, Ireland, on the shores of the Boyne has an area of 30,000 m². It is the remains of the largest Norman castle in Europe, and Ireland's largest castle. It was built primarily by Hugh de Lacy and his son Walter.

tructure

The central three-story building, called a keep, donjon or great tower, is unique in its design, being of cruciform shape, with twenty corners. It was built in at least three stages, initially by Hugh de Lacy (c.1174) and then in 1196 and 1206 by Walter de Lacy. The keep was built on the site of a large ring work fortification that was burnt down in 1172 and rebuilt in 1173, following attacks by the Gaelic King of Connacht, Ruaidrí Ua Conchobair Rory O'Connor.

Much of the interior of the castle was archaeologically excavated by David Sweetman of OPW in the 1970s and more extensively by Alan Hayden in the 1990s.

The surviving curtain walls are predominantly of two phases. The west and north sides of the enciente are defended by rectangular towers which date to the 1170s and 1180s while the other sides with its round towers dates to the very end of the twelfth century. There were two main gates into the castle. That at the west side dates to the 1170s and sits on top of s a demolished wooden gateway. The upper stories of the stone tower were later altered to a semi octagonal shape. A single round towered gate with an external barbican tower lies in the south wall and is known as the Dublin Gate. It dates from the 1190s.

Apart from the keep the main structures surviving in the castle consist of the following: an early 14th century three towered fore work defending the keep entrance and including stables within it which is accessed by a stone causeway crossing the partly in filled ditch of the earlier ringwork; a huge early fourteenth century three aisled great hall with an under croft beneath its east end opening via a water gate to the river; a huge defensive tower turned into a solar in the early fourteenth century at the northern angle of the castle; a smaller aisled hall added to the east end of the great hall in the fourteenth or fifteenth century; a building (possibly the mint) added to the east end of the latter hall; two fifteenth or sixteenth century stone buildings added inside the town gatehouse, 17th century buildings added to the end of the hall range and to the north side of the keep and a series of lime kilns, one dating from the late 12th century the remainder from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

History

The Castle was used as a centre of Norman administration for the Liberty of Meath, one of the new administrative areas of Ireland created by Henry II of England and granted to Hugh de Lacy. de Lacy took possession of it in 1172. De Lacy built a huge ringwork castle defended by a stout double palisade and external ditch on top of the hill. There may also have been further defences around the cliffs fringing the high ground. Part of a stone footed timber gatehouse lies beneath the present stone gate at the west side of the castle. The ringwork was attacked and burnt by the Irish but De Lacy immediately rebuilt it in 1173. His son Walter continued rebuilding and the castle was completed c 1204. The next phase of the castle’s construction took place in the second half of the 13th century, by Geoffrey de Geneville. He is reputed to have built the wooden towers, the Great Hall, and added to the North Tower, the fosse and drawbridge. In the late 13th century, Joanna de Geneville married Roger Mortimer and the castle went to the Mortimer family. The last of the Mortimers died in 1425, and the castle was abandoned until the early 15th century, when King Richard II of England allowed for two of his wards to live there, one of them the future Henry V. The castle site was chosen because it is on raised ground, overlooking a fording point over the River Boyne, and was the site of an importanat early medieval ecclesiastical and royal site, and although the site is about 25 miles from the Irish Sea, it was accessible in medieval times by boat up the River Boyne. Trim Castle is referred to in the Norman poem “The Song of Dermot and the Earl.”

During the late Middle Ages, Trim Castle was the centre of administration for Meath and marked the outer northern boundary of The Pale. In the 16th and 17th centuries it had declined in importance, except as a potentially important military site, and the castle was allowed to deteriorate.. Repairs were made on the castle in the 1530s, and during the 15th century the Irish Parliament met in Trim Castle seven times. It fell into decline in the 16th century and was abandoned to Cromwell’s army in 1649.

After the Cromwellian wars, the castle grounds were granted to the Wellington family who held it until the time of Arthur Wellesley, who sold it to the Leslies of Glaslough, Co. Monaghan.

In following years it passed via the Encumbered Estates Court into the hands of the Dunsany Plunketts. They left the lands open and from time to time allowed various uses, with part of the Castle Field rented by the Town Council as a municipal dump for some years, and a small meeting hall for the Royal British Legion erected. The Dunsanys held the Castle and surrounds until 1993, when after years of discussion, Lord Dunsany sold the land and buildings to the State, retaining only river access and fishing rights.

The Office of Public Works began a major programme of conservation and exploratory works, costing over six million euro, including partial restoration of the moat and the installation of a protective roof.

Access

Trim Castle is open, on payment of a modest entry fee, to the public everyday from Easter Saturday to Halloween (October 31) from 10am. The area inside the castle walls is freely accessible for a small fee, while the Castle keep is visited by a 45-minute guided tour, with first tour at 10.30am, last entry at 5pm and last tour at 5.15pm. In winter, the complex is open only on weekends and bank holidays. If you take the tour the guide can show you the historical graffiti found on some of the walls, some of it dating back to the castle's construction.

The castle grounds, outside the walls, including the restored small canal and fine viewing areas, can be accessed free all year around, and there is a pedestrian bridge across the Boyne to allow access to outlying historic remains.

Points of note

The Castle is noted for the part it played in the filming of the Mel Gibson directed film "Braveheart".

In 2003 there was a controversy surrounding the decision by the Irish Environment Minister Martin Cullen not to oppose the construction of a five-storey hotel across the road from the castle. The development had been condemned by a local councillor, a senior inspector in An Bord Pleanala (acting in a private capacity, and later choosing to withdraw his appeal lest it be considered a conflict of interest) and heritage bodies, many of whom had been critical of the government's treatment of other heritage sites such as Carrickmines Castle (the ruins of which were excavated partly to allow the completion of a roadway). The hotel was opened in August 2006, and has brought some visitors to the town since then.

References

* Reeves-Smith, Terrence. 1995. Irish Castles. Belfast: The Appletree Press Ltd.
* De Breffny, Brian. 1977. Castles of Ireland. London: Thames and Hudson.
* Salter, Mike. 1993. Castles and Stronghouses of Ireland. Worc.: Folly Publications.
* Sweetman, David. 1999. The Medieval Castles of Ireland. Cork: The Collins Press.
* McNeill, Tom. 1997. Castles in Ireland. London: Routledge.

External links

* [http://www.meathtourism.ie Meath Tourism information on Trim Castle] website managed by Meath County Council
* [http://www.heritageireland.ie/en/HistoricSites/East/TrimCastleMeath/ Heritage of Ireland, Trim Castle]
* [http://www.publicinquiry.ie/reports.php#ld190 Centre for Public Inquiry "Trim Castle, A Monument to Bad Planning?" report]
* [http://www.ijkfoto.net/main.php?g2_itemId=30389 Photo Gallery from Trim Castle]
* http://castlestoshamrocks.com/castles/trim.html
* http://homepage.tinet.ie/~mickos/trim_castle.htm]