The ruins of the castle were the subject of a long-running dispute before the M50 motorway was built through the site of the castle. The site prior to the building of the M50. They paid dearly – as a focus of the Irish Confederate Wars, the castle was besieged by English forces, and when it was retaken, over 300 of the Walsh, O'Byrne, and O'Tooles were massacred. In the Irish Rebellion of 1641, the Catholic Walshs, who owned the castle, sided with the native Irish and the Confederate attempt to create the first independent Irish parliament. The site still contains impressive defences, hewn into bedrock, and human remains from when the castle was overwhelmed in 1642. Within this was a settlement with a variety of wooden and stone buildings, mills, and a keep or hall house in the centre.

The Dubliners responded decisively: the Mayor of Dublin with a large force fell on the O'Byrnes and defeated them, in an encounter popularly known as the Battle of Bloody Bank, due to the number of casualties.Īs a major fortress, it had an extensive curtain wall flanked by towers protecting an area of some acres. The delay allowed the Walsh family, who owned Carrickmines, to send an urgent warning to Dublin. In 1402 the O'Byrne clan of County Wicklow, who periodically raided Dublin, moved a large mercenary force to the banks of the River Dargle at Bray, but, as the direct route to the city would bring them close to the stronghold of Carrickmines, they apparently hesitated before attacking. Guarding the southern plains, this fortress was once a central medallion in the necklace of the Norman castles and outposts dotted along the outskirts of The Pale – the area around Dublin under English rule during the medieval period.

Sections of the medieval walls and some sections of the castle's defensive structures were preserved within or under M50 roundabouts.Ĭarrickmines Castle was the site of a Hiberno-Norse settlement which during the 12th century became a fortified Norman castle and village, on the frontier between Dublin and Wicklow, Ireland. The mostly subsurface ruins lay in the path of the M50 motorway, completed in 2005. The castle was built in the Middle Ages to protect the English-ruled Pale around Dublin.

JSTOR ( October 2018) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)Ĭarrickmines Castle is an archaeological site in Carrickmines, County Dublin, in eastern Ireland.Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.įind sources: 'Carrickmines Castle' – news Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This article needs additional citations for verification.

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