Castles

The first Normans arrived in 1169 followed in 1171 by Henry II of England who was recognised as Lord of Ireland. The Normans built a fine new wooden castle on a great artificial mound of earth and called the place New Castle. The mount of earth is still there 800 years later, crowned by a later stone castle.

The Normans began to divide Ireland into counties but there was no County of Wicklow until after 1600. The O'Tooles, the O'Byrnes and further south, the Kavanaghs held Wicklow and defied the sheriffs of Dublin, Kildare, Carlow and Wexford. Until the end of the middle ages, Greystones was quite literally "Beyond the Pale". Then in 1536, Henry VIII's Government pushed the pale south of Bray and established a family called Talbot in the lands and castle of Rathdown. It was about this time that another Castle or rather stone Manor House was built, perhaps in the reign of Queen Elizabeth - the original Killincarrig House or Killincarrig Castle.

It is the oldest building within the parish of Greystones and is well worth a visit. Go down the road running east from the Cherry Orchard and you will see this large ivy covered ruin standing in the back garden of a semi-detached house on your left. The owner courteously allowed me to go through and have a look, though he might not be pleased if the whole Greystones literary society asked him one after another.

It has been roofless for at least 200 years. It was a solid stone house of two stories with lofty ceilings and a third semi attic; about 25 feet by 50 feet at ground level, with an east wing whose area might be 15 feet squared. You can see the great chimney in the thickness of the west wall and the remains of a stone staircase in a side turret.

It is not known who was the builder of this "Castle" but circa 1600 the first Protestant settlers from England arrived in the district. Delgany Parish records begin in the reign of James I and from the very beginning the surnames Massey and Fox are to found. The house beside the Cherry Orchard, the Stanley's house, may go back into the 17th century; it used to belong to a branch of the Buckley family. The big tree outside the Cherry Orchard is about as old as the house. A photograph taken in 1906 shows a shop front on the side of the house nearest the road, but an ordinary window replaced that by 1922. It was in the 17th century under James I that Wicklow became a county, sending two members to Parliament in Dublin.

Contact us