Malahide Castle

We traveled North today about 45 minutes to see our first castle in Ireland. The Castle is located in the town of Malahide about 10 miles out of Dublin. This castle and the 250 acre grounds were owned and controlled by the Talbot family for 791 years, which is actually pretty amazing in spite of all the invaders that have come in and occupied Ireland. For one family to hold on to such a large property through all the occupying forces is really unusual.

They didn’t allow photography inside the castle, so my pictures are only of the outside. The interior pictures I gathered on the internet.

The oldest parts of Malahide castle were built in the 1100s and remain today in nearly the same condition as when they were built. This makes it quite unique in Ireland. Nearly all of the castles in Ireland today are in various states of disrepair. To see Malahide castle fully intact you can really see how the people lived when the castle was a working estate.

Some things are different today. For example, there were no glass windows initially. For defensive purposes, the windows were only narrow vertical openings from which arrows could be launched but would be hard to penetrate from the outside. They have been replaced with glass today for obvious functionality.

The Talbot family held the castle and its grounds from 1185 through 1976. There was only one break of Talbot control of the castle between 1649 and 1660. During this time Oliver Cromwell had a short conquest of Ireland. He gave control of the grounds to Miles Corbet following his short rule. In 1660 when the brief Cromwell rule ended the castle and grounds were restored to the Talbot family.

There is one beautiful completely oak paneled room, the Oak Room, with ornate biblical carvings along every wall. Above the fireplace in the Oak Room, there is a rare 16th century Flemish carving depicting the coronation of the Virgin. This carving was very important to the Talbot family. During the short years the castle was out of the Talbot control this carving disappeared. When the Talbots regained control of the castle, the carving miraculously reappeared.

There is a nice little tea room in the castle and a fancier restaurant just to the back of the castle. The tea room serves great sandwiches, soups, lasagna, coffees and pastry desserts. This was perfect for us.

We visited the castle on a Saturday morning and as we were driving in we saw teams of kids hurling. The grounds are used today for different hurling leagues and the sound of young kids running around was neat. It’s nice that the castle grounds have contemporary use.

The castle and grounds were sold to the Dublin City Council for preservation in 1976. Apparently the taxes became too much for the family to maintain so they sold it to be used to teach some of the history of Ireland.

Here is a link to the Malahide Castle website and here is a link to Malahide Castle on Wikipedia.