Qualla: Roscrea Castle

Roscrea Castle: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit EamonnHoran, CC BY-SA 4.0. In the 1960s, officials in Roscrea considered demolishing the elegant Georgian house that stood within the walls of the town's medieval castle. The proposed replacements included a swimming pool and a bacon factory. Damer House was eventually saved by Desmond Guinness and the Irish Georgian Society, who recognized it as one of the few examples of pre-Palladian architecture in Ireland. Today, the house and the 13th-century castle that surrounds it form the Roscrea Heritage Centre -- a place where medieval fortification and 18th-century elegance share a single courtyard.

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Image: EamonnHoran | CC BY-SA 4.0

Roscrea Castle: King John's Order

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Graham Horn, CC BY-SA 2.0. The southeastern tower of Roscrea Castle is sometimes called King John's Castle, and there is evidence to support the name. In 1213, John, King of England, ordered a "motam et bretagium" -- a motte and tower -- built on this site as part of his efforts to consolidate control of t...

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Image: Graham Horn | CC BY-SA 2.0

Roscrea Castle: The Gate Tower and Its Secrets

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mary Dillon, CC BY-SA 4.0. Roscrea Castle has no keep. Instead, the main residence is a three-storey rectangular gate building to the north, rising approximately 27 metres, originally equipped with a bascule drawbridge and portcullis. The entrance features a barrel vault ceiling, and below the gate tower l...

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Image: Mary Dillon | CC BY-SA 4.0

Roscrea Castle: Stormed, Surrendered, Repurposed

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit MaxxL, CC0. In 1646, Owen Roe O'Neill stormed the castle and town during the upheavals of the Cromwellian era. By 1650, it had fallen to Cromwell himself and was briefly used by his son-in-law Henry Ireton. The castle changed hands again in 1703 when the Duke of Ormonde sold it to the Royal ...

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Image: MaxxL | CC0

Roscrea Castle: The House That Guinness Saved

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit PaulT, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 1728, John Damer built a large Georgian house on the castle grounds in Queen Anne style. The three-storey-over-basement house features nine bay windows and one of only two Queen Anne style staircases surviving in Ireland. When demolition was proposed in the 1960s, Desmond Guin...

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Image: PaulT | CC BY-SA 4.0