What is recorded here

Castle was probably a gate tower for a much larger complex, not a standalone fortress. That distinction matters because it suggests entry, threshold and control rather than isolated defence. The lost surrounding buildings may have included chambers, yards or service rooms now hidden beneath Tallaght. The surviving tower becomes a fragment of a greater doorway, still marking the place where the castle began.

The square tower (DU021-037010-) was probably a gate tower to a much larger building (Bradley and King 1988, 320). Monk Mason's (1818) drawing shows a much more extensive castle complex. Handcock states that the parts of this more extensive castle's foundations have been found on occasion, and that there appears to have been an enclosing fosse (Handcock 1899, 29, 35; Bradley & King 1988, 331; O'Curry 1837, 32-3). The original castle was constructed in the first half of the early fourteenth century. Ball states that the castle was used as a garrison in the time of the Geraldine Rebellion (1905, 8). Compiled by Geraldine Stout

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