What is recorded here

Donnybrook castle stood as a fortified Elizabethan mansion built by the Ussher's in 1560, dominating the Unknown Townland until demolition in 1759. Its long rectangular frame and circular turret suggested a household proud enough to resist ordinary local bounds. The convent now occupying the site preserves that sudden disappearance, turning a noble residence into a quiet religious address.

Shown on the 1837 OS 6-inch map . St Mary Magdalen's Convent of Sisters of Charity, off Brookvale Road occupies the site of Donnybrook castle, an Elizabethan Mansion built by the Ussher's in 1560 (Ball 1903, 51-55). It was demolished in 1759 (Ball 1903, 54). An 18th-century drawing of the castle (op cit 52) shows a long rectangular, two-story building with a circular turret and lit by double-light, round-headed windows. Pre-development excavations in 1995 in the vicinity of the convent uncovered a gully (Wth 1.2m, D 0.3m) which formed part of a small, circular enclosure of probable, late medieval date (Mc Conway 1996, 13)).

The fortified house was built by the Ussher family in 1560 as an Elizabethan mansion known as Donnybrook Castle. It is remembered for its historical association with the prominent Ussher family and its later transformation into a convent site.

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