Moorstown Castle

Welcome to Moorstown Castle, a poignant example of a sixteenth-century Irish tower house. As we stand here on the public periphery, we are looking at a structure that encapsulates the transition from medieval feudalism to the…

As we move slightly along the perimeter, focus your gaze on the remains of the bawn, the fortified enclosure surrounding the main tower. In the sixteenth century, the bawn was a critical component of any tower house, serving as a…

Directing your attention now to the towering keep itself, we can observe the classic verticality of the Irish tower house. These structures were designed with a series of stacked rooms, often connected by a spiral stone staircase…

Now, let us focus on where the entrance to the bawn and the tower would have been. Every entry point in a sixteenth-century castle was a potential weak spot, and therefore, it was heavily fortified. …

In this section of our tour, we must address the difficult reality of the castle's current environment. As noted in contemporary accounts, the courtyard is often deep in muck, with cattle using the ancient structure as a shelter…

To truly understand Moorstown, we must look beyond its immediate walls to the broader Tipperary landscape. This region is part of what historians sometimes call a 'tower house belt,' where these structures were densely populated…

In our final specific look at the castle's structure, let us examine the craft of the masonry. The builders of Moorstown were skilled artisans who understood the properties of limestone, the primary building material of the…

As we conclude our audio tour of Moorstown Castle, I hope you have gained a deeper appreciation for this overlooked gem of Irish history. We have seen how this sixteenth-century tower house serves as a bridge between the medieval…