Rathfarnham Castle
| Rathfarnham Castle | ||
|---|---|---|
 Rathfarnham Castle |
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| Alternative name (s): | Caisleán Rath Fearnáin | |
| Creation time : | around 1583 | |
| Castle type : | Niederungsburg | |
| Conservation status: | restored and rebuilt | |
| Standing position : | Irish clergy | |
| Construction: | Stone , plastered | |
| Place: | Rathfarnham | |
| Geographical location | 53 ° 17 '53.1 " N , 6 ° 17' 1.1" W | |
| Height: | 54 m ASLTemplate: height / unknown reference | |
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Rathfarnham Castle ( Irish Caisleán Rath Fearnáin ) is a solid house from the 16th century in Rathfarnham in Ireland County South Dublin .
history
Origins
An earlier castle was replaced by the current building on land that had been confiscated by the Eustace family from Baltinglass because of their involvement in the Second Desmond Rebellion (1579–1583). The family spoke Irish Gaelic and was an extract from the amalgamation of Gaelic and Norman traditions that defined the early modern Irish identity, which the phrase "more Irish than the Irish themselves" describes. The Geraldines defended the Pale against the Irish clans in the nearby Wicklow Mountains . It is believed that the current castle was built around 1583 on behalf of Archbishop Adam Loftus . The weakly fortified and crenellated building was extensively rebuilt in the 18th century.
The castle was a four-story, square-plan building with protruding towers on each corner; the walls were on average 1.5 meters thick. On the ground floor there are two rooms with vaulted ceilings divided by a wall almost 3 meters thick that extends to the full height of the castle. On the same level as the entrance hall are the reception rooms from the 18th century and on the floor above the former ballroom, which was later converted into a chapel .
Rathfarnham was described as a "waste village" when Loftus bought it. His new castle wasn't finished long when it had to face an attack by the Wicklow clans in 1600, during the Nine Years' War .
Civil war
Archbishop Loftus left the castle to his son Dudley and in 1616 it fell to his son Adam . When Adam owned it, it was besieged in the 1641 Rebellion . It was able to be defended against the Confederate army when the surrounding country was overrun. Dam Loftus opposed the Armistice Treaty, which was supposed to end the fighting between the Irish Confederates and the English royalists . As a result, was imprisoned at Dublin Castle .
In the following Irish Confederation Wars (1641–1653) the castle changed hands several times. From 1641 to 1647 it housed a garrison of the English royalists. In 1647, Ormonde , the commander of the Royalists in Ireland, handed Dublin to the English Parliament and parliamentary troops were stationed there until 1649, when the castle was stormed by the Royalists a few days before the Battle of Rathmines and taken without a fight as part of the Siege of Dublin. But after winning the Battle of Rathmines, they retook the Roundheads. It is also reported that Oliver Cromwell held a council here during the reconquest of Ireland before moving south and besieging Wexford . Adam Loftus, who had got his castle and lands back under Cromwell, sided with the parliamentarians and fell in the siege of Limerick in 1651 .
After the English Civil War , the Loftus family regained ownership of the castle. In 1659, Dr. Dudley Loftus , the Archbishop's great grandson, the castle. Throughout his life, Dudley Loftus has held the positions of Revenue Commissioner, Judge at the Admiralty Court, Chancellery Magistrate, MP for Kildare & Wicklow in the Protectorate Parliament , and MP for Naas, Bannow and Fethard .
His remains are buried in St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin .
18th century
The property then fell by marriage to Philip Wharton, 1st Duke of Wharton . The young man lost his fortune in the South Seas Bubble and in 1723 the castle was sold to the Right Hon. William Conolly , Speaker of the Irish House of Commons , for £ 62,000 . In 1742 it was given to Dr. John Hoadly , Archbishop of Armagh and after his death four years later it fell to his son-in-law, Bellingham Boyle . In 1767 Boyle sold the property to Nicholas Hume-Loftus, 2nd Earl of Ely , a descendant of Adam Loftus, the castle's builder.
Nicholas Hume-Loftus died a few years later, presumably as an indirect result of the great hardship he suffered in his youth, and the property fell to his uncle, the Hon. Henry Loftus , who was made Earl of Ely in 1771 . As a reminder of the regaining of the property, the Loftus family had a new entrance to the castle built in the form of a Roman triumphal arch . This arch can still be seen today from the nearby Dodder Park Road . Henry Loftus was primarily responsible for converting the medieval fortress into a Georgian mansion; he commissioned the well-known architects Sir William Chambers and James "Athenian" Stuart to carry out this work. The coupled windows were enlarged and the battlements replaced by wall caps with decorative urns. A semicircular extension was added to the east and an entrance porch with stairs to the north. The interiors were designed according to the taste of the time by leading artists, e. B. Angelika Kauffmann , redesigned. Contemporary writers who visited the house have left extravagant descriptions of its grandeur.
Henry Loftus died in 1783 and his nephew, Charles Tottenham , succeeded him. He eventually became Marquess of Ely as a reward for his election during the Irish Union.
19th and 20th centuries
In 1812 the family leased the property to the Ropers and moved their valuable property to Loftus Hall in Wexford . The property and castle were then used for dairy farming and fell into disrepair. A contemporary report from 1838 mentions the following:
“As you cross the Dodder over a ford and walk along its south bank towards Rathfarnham, a gleaming gate driveway on the left that is considered the best of its kind in Ireland invites tourists to explore the once beautiful Rathfarnham estate, but it is eloquent now Garbage, the undulating hills are covered with wild tendrils, the river sluggish and weedy, the paths can hardly be made out, the ice houses open to the curious sun, the fish pond full of rushes, while the crumbling architecture of the castle and the crumbling, unsightly offices in the immediate neighborhood (...). The castle, previously the home of the Loftus family and still owned by the Marquis of Ely, is leased to Mr Conolly for a small rent, and an extensive complex (...) The great hall can be reached via a terrace through a porch with eight Doric columns supporting a dome painted with frescoes of zodiac signs and other things. This room was adorned with antique and modern busts on pedestals made of colored marble and has three stained glass windows, one of them decorated with a coat of arms of the Loftus family and beautifully executed partitions. A number of other rooms showed remarkable splendor and until recently contained numerous family portraits and a valuable collection of old masters. But when you know that this building has been used as a public milk station for years and that the 1.2 km² property has been redesigned accordingly, [you can imagine] that some damage must have occurred under these changed circumstances. "
In 1852 the Lord Chancellor , Francis Blackburne , bought the castle and his family lived here for three generations. The developers Bailey & Gibson acquired Rathfarnham Castle in 1912 and divided the property. The eastern part became the Castle Golf Club , the castle and the south-western part were bought by the Jesuit Order in 1913 and residential developments were built on the north-western part.
The Jesuits are an order known for its educational duties, and one of the Jesuits, Father O'Leary SJ , built a seismograph . This machine was used to detect tremors and earthquakes all over the world, and for a time Rathfarnham Castle became the source of earthquake information for the national media.
North of the castle was a long vaulted-ceiling chamber called Cromwell's Court or Cromwell's Fort . This was obviously a barn or warehouse built as part of the castle farm; it had narrow loopholes in its 1.5 meter thick walls. In 1922, this building was integrated into a new retreat house, the ground floor of which it formed, and its externally visible character was hidden by applying a uniform cement plaster.
Not far from the golf club house was an attractive little stone and brick temple, another relic from Lord Ely's time. Even if it was in poor condition, it would have given this part of the property some charm if it had been repaired. Unfortunately, after a decision by the committee in 1979, it was demolished.
In 1986 the Jesuits sold Rathfarnham Castle, but before they moved out they removed the stained-glass windows made by the famous Harry Clarke Studios from the chapel and donated them to the Catholic Church in Tullamore , which burned down in 1983. The other windows were donated to Mary 's Hospital on Harold's Cross and the Children's Hospital on Temple Street , Dublin.
conservation
The castle was sold to Delaware Properties in 1985 and it was feared it would be demolished. After tremendous public pressure to save the building, the state bought it in 1987 and declared it a National Monument . The Office of Public Works is currently undergoing extensive renovation work on the entire castle, but it is still open to the public during the summer (May 5th - October 12th). The castle is presented as an object of restoration, in which visitors can take a first-hand look at the layers of its former existence that are discovered during the research work.
Individual evidence
- ↑ 2014: 140 - Rathfarnham Castle, Rathfarnham Road, Dublin 14, Dublin . Excavations.ie. Retrieved November 12, 2018.
- ↑ Kayla Hertz: Archaeologist uncovers 300-year-old high heels, tea and jewels in Irish castle . Irish Central. July 15, 2016. Retrieved November 12, 2018.
- ↑ Laura Geggel: 350-Year-Old High Heels, Tea and Goblets Uncovered at Irish Castle . NBC News Online. November 11, 2014. Retrieved November 12, 2018.
- ^ John D'Alton: The History of the County of Dublin . Hodges and Smith, Dublin 1838.
- ↑ Quick Guide to 2011 Opening Times . Archived from the original on January 27, 2012. Retrieved November 14, 2018.
swell
- Rathfarnham Castle . Rathfarnham.com.
- Rathfarnham Castle . Webcitation.org.
- Patrick Healy: Archeology, Early Christian Remains and Local Histories . South Dublin Libraries. Chapter 10.
