O'Dea Castle

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O'Dea Castle
Caisleán Uí Dheá
O'Dea Castle

O'Dea Castle

Alternative name (s): Dysert O'Dea Castle, O'Dea's Castle
Creation time : 1470-1490
Castle type : Niederungsburg (Tower House)
Conservation status: restored
Standing position : Irish nobility
Construction: Quarry stone
Place: Corofin
Geographical location 52 ° 54 ′ 41 ″  N , 9 ° 3 ′ 59 ″  W Coordinates: 52 ° 54 ′ 41 ″  N , 9 ° 3 ′ 59 ″  W
Height: 24  m ASLTemplate: height / unknown reference
O'Dea Castle (Ireland)
O'Dea Castle

O'Dea Castle (also Dysert O'Dea Castle ; Irish Caisleán Uí Dheá ) is a tower house , which is described as a castle , in Dysert O'Dea , the former fortress of Clan O'Dea , about 5 km south of Corofin im Irish County Clare , just off the R476 trunk road. The castle was Diarmaid Ó Dea, lord of Cineál Fearmaic , built from 1470 to 1490; it stands about 15 meters high on a limestone rock head and its floor plan measures 6 meters by 12 meters. The Tower House adjoins the Dysert O'Dea Monastery .

history

Close-up of the tower house

The Battle of Dysert O'Dea , in which the Anglo-Normans were driven from the area for over 200 years, took place on May 10, 1318 at this location. The castle was Diarmaid Ó Dea, lord of Cineál Fearmaic , built in the period 1470-1490. Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond , conquered it from the O'Dea clan in 1570. But in 1584 the clan had recaptured it. At that time, Domhnall Maol Ó Dea was registered as the owner. Domhnall Maol Ó Dea supported the clan chiefs from the north in the Nine Years War (1594-1603) and as a result Dysert O'Dea Castle fell to the Protestant Bishop of Kildare , Daniel Neylon, who bequeathed it to his son John in 1594. But it soon returned to the O'Dea clan. Conor Cron O'Dea supported the Confederates and took part in the successful siege of Ballyalla Castle in 1642 .

After the fall of Limerick in 1651 to Oliver Cromwell's troops , the castle was occupied by a small garrison. When the soldiers left O'Dea Castle, they destroyed the battlements , the upper floors and the stairwell. The family Neylon then returned, but in the reign of King Charles II. Of England was Conor Cron O'Dea Castle back. Conor's sons, Michael and James , supported the cause of King James II of England and so they lost their castle again. Their lands fell to the Synge family , but the castle later slowly fell into ruin.

1970 John O'Day from Wisconsin Rapids in the USA bought the Tower House and had it restored. He then leased it to the Dysert Development Association , which, with the help of the Irish Tourist Board, opened the Dysert O'Dea Castle Archeology Center in 1986 . An exhibition of artifacts found there from the Stone Age to 1922 was shown.

The castle also won the Clare Tourism Award for being one of the most authentically rebuilt castles in Ireland.

today

Today the Center is called the Clare Archeology Center ; there are artifacts from the time of 1000 BC. Exhibited from BC to AD 1700, the history of the area over the past 300 years is shown and a wall around part of the castle is possible. The Dysert O'Dea Archeology Trail includes sites around the castle, e.g. B. the remains of the Dysert O'Dea monastery.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cróinin and Breen , among others, comment in The Other Clare , 1985: “The castle itself is more correctly referred to as the Tower House, as it certainly falls into the category of those fortified houses which were built in large numbers throughout the southern part of Ireland between 1400 and 1600 . "
  2. ↑ Risteard Ua Cróinin (Richard Cronin), Martin Breen: Dysart O'Dea Castle, Co. Clare in The Other Clare . Volume 9. Shannon Archaeological and Historical Society, April 1985.
  3. ↑ "Dysert" means hermitage.
  4. ↑ Caisleán Uí DHEA . In: Placenames Database of Ireland . Retrieved June 19, 2018.
  5. ↑ Risteard Ua Cróinin (Richard Cronin), Martin Breen: Dysart O'Dea Castle, Co. Clare in The Other Clare . Volume 9. Shannon Archaeological and Historical Society, April 1985. p. 17.
  6. ↑ a b Risteárd Ua Cróinin (Richard Cronin): Dysert O'Dea - A history trail - Guide and Map . Dysert Development Association, 1989.

literature

  • Risteárd Ua Cróinin (Richard Cronin): O'Dea: Ua Deághaidh: The Story of a Rebel Clan . Ballinakella Press, Whitegate, 1992. ISBN 0-946538-07-7 .
  • Gerard Anthony Hayes-McCoy: Irish Battles - A Military History of Ireland . Appletree Press, 1990. ISBN 0-86281-250-X .

Web links

Commons : O'Dea Castle  - collection of images, videos and audio files