Dungarvan Castle

Welcome to Dungarvan Castle, a site that has anchored this coastal town in County Waterford for nearly 900 years. As we stand here on the edge of the sea, we are looking at a structure that was begun in 1185, shortly after the…

The most significant and original part of Dungarvan Castle is the shell keep, located on the highest part of the site. This structure served as the residence for the most important people in the castle and the place where…

Connecting the various towers and the keep is the curtain wall, which enclosed the castle yard. This wall was the primary defense against ground-level attacks. …

The South Tower, which you can see clearly from the waterfront, is a later addition to the original 1200 AD layout. We know it wasn't original because of a curious architectural detail: an arrow loop—a narrow firing slit—on the…

The entrance to the castle was controlled by the gatehouse, which provided both security and living accommodation for the garrison. Like the South Tower, the gatehouse was an 'extra' built after the initial construction of the…

Before we leave the castle walls, we must acknowledge the ground beneath our feet. Archaeological digs conducted in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have revealed that the Anglo-Normans were far from the first…

To truly understand Dungarvan Castle, we must look at it through the eyes of a seventeenth-century resident. Reconstructions from around 1630 show the town of Dungarvan as a small, walled settlement. …

As we conclude our tour of Dungarvan Castle, we are left with a sense of the building's extraordinary longevity. For nearly nine centuries, these walls have stood as a witness to the changing tides of Irish history. …