Carnew Castle

Situated on level ground with a gentle slope and extensive views to the S. A substantial 16th-century tower house now incorporated into a late 18th/early 19th-century Georgian Gothic house. The tower house consists of the main four-storey tower and a large adjoining angle tower with a turret, which forms one angle of the present building. The modern entrance, in the angle between the tower house and angle tower, is the original doorway into the original building itself, through a two-centred granite arch. There is another turret on the tower house at the NW corner. To the N of the entrance at second-floor level is a machicolation, while garderobe chutes are visible in the external face of the tower on the opposite side. It is still occupied. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Wicklow' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 17 December 2008

Carnew Castle was originally built as a 16th-century tower house, likely by a local Gaelic noble family, and later incorporated into a Georgian Gothic house in the late 18th or early 19th century. It is important as a rare surviving example of a tower house adapted into a grander residence, reflecting changes in Irish domestic architecture and social status over several centuries.