Roodstown | Ireland Inside and Out

Chapters: 00:00 intro 00:50 The Pale 01:21 Tower House subsidy and building boom 01:33 Ardee Castle – Ireland’s largest Tower House 02:50 A look inside from the northwest side. 03:40 Another look inside O4:08 View of the vaulted ceiling storeroom 04:31 Stone Spiral Staircase 04:59 The murder hole 05:15 Castle features 05:58 Site of forge and blacksmith shop

Roodstown Castle is a 15th-century fortified tower house and National Monument located in County Louth, Ireland.

Tower houses were fortified residencies of Irish rural gentry built during the 15th and 17th centuries. Roodstown Castle is associated with the Taaffe family, who were active in the area until the 17th century.

In the mid-fifteenth century men loyal to the English crown living in the Dublin (English) Pale were offered a £10 annual government subsidy to construct a fortified house within the Pale. £10 may not sound like a lot, but in the mid-15th century this was enough money to buy 13 horses or 25 cows or pay a skilled craftsman for almost a year. https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/c…

Thanks to the subsidy, numerous tower houses were built win the Pale during the 15th century. Pioneering Irish historian and archeologist Harold G. Leask estimated that more 2500 tower house may have been built in Ireland. There are similar structures in Scotland.

There are 26 tower houses in Co. Louth. Roodstown may have been one of these subsidized tower houses. Roodstown Castle shows the original owners’ wealth and the builders’ craftsmanship six hundred years ago.

The castle’s detailed window and door openings are testament to the skills and craftmanship of the area’s stone workers.

Subsidized or not Roodstown Castle sits at a strategic location between the River Glyde, River Dee, Ardee and the Irish Sea. Roodstown Castle is considered an excellent example of a surviving tower house since its original outside structure is still intact.

Constructed of rubble masonry with limestone trim, Roodstown Castle is a rectangular four-story tower house with small turrets at diagonally opposed corners.

There is a spiral stairway in the southeast side and garderobes in the northwest. The castle contained a vaulted ground-floor cellar or storage space, a murder-hole, a crenelated parapet, chemin de ronde.

The upper floors have large ogee arch windows and fireplaces. The roof and timber floors above the ground floor no longer exist. Roodstown Castle was occupied during a tumultuous period of history. The nearby town of Ardee, which has its own significant tower house, Ardee Castle, suffered mightily during this time.

Roodstown Castle is located 3.6 km (2.2 mi) north-northeast of Ardee. There is no access to the inside of the castle for safety reasons and the main gate to field where the castle is located is frequently locked. https://www.geograph.ie/photo/881262

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Sources:

Dolan and Murray, n.d., p.75 in Mitchell, Frank & Tuite Breeda, ‘The Great Bog of Ardee’, Journal of the County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society, 1993, Vol.23 No.1, pp.7-95.

Donnolly, Colm J., ‘Frowning Ruins: The Tower Houses of Medieval Ireland,’ History Ireland, Vol. 4 No.1, Spring 1996, 11-16.

Leask, Harold G., Irish Castles and Castellated Houses, Revised 2nd ed., Dundalgan Press, Dundalk, 1951, p.75.

Mitchell, Frank & Tuite, Breeda, ‘The Great Bog of Ardee’, Journal of the County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society, 1993, Vol.23 No.1, pp.7-95.

Rowan, Alistair, ‘The Irishness of Irish Architecture’, Architectural History, 1997, Vol.40 pp.1-23. Wright, Thomas, Louthiana: Or an Introduction to the Antiquities of Ireland, 1758, Dundalk: W. Tempest Limited.

Links to further reading:

http://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading…

http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls00…

http://downsurvey.tcd.ie/down-survey-…

https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/5008856…

https://geohive.maps.arcgis.com/apps/…

http://irishantiquities.bravehost.com…

https://www.libraryireland.com/topog/…

https://www.logainm.ie/ga/1165428?s=r…

https://www.logainm.ie/ga/33627

https://theirishaesthete.com/tag/rood…

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