![]() The foundations of the original towerhouse, Newtown castle which was discovered in 1971, are visible in the courtyard. A branch of the O'Rourke family established a village, Baile Nua or Newtown, in this location sometime after the Battle of Magh Slécht in 1256 about the same time, the Normans were beginning to arrive in force in Sligo, where they founded the Dominican abbey and built Sligo castle. I have chosen to refer to this site as Newtown Castle, which belonged to Sir Brian O'Rourke and was one of his chief residences, rather than by the later manor house built by and named after Robert Parke. Leaving out the restoration work that has been carried out in more recent times, in order to make the site accessible to the public, the building as it now stands has remained largely unaltered since the end of the seventeenth century.Īrchaeology, history and architecture, 2011. Overlooking the northern shores of Lough Gill, the castle has had several different phases of occupation. ![]() ![]() Newtown Castle | O'Rourke's Castle | Parke's Castleįew castles in Ireland have a more beautiful setting or a more enigmatic history than Parke's Castle, County Leitrim. ![]() Parke's Castle, a fortified manor house built around 1630 using the site and stones of the earlier Newtown Castle which belonged to Sir Brian O'Rourke. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |