Rathgar Castle

Rathgar Castle formerly stood on the site immediately adjoining the top of the present Rathgar Road and the start of Orwell Road (Joyce 1912, 188). Associated with the Cusack family from the early 17th century, it was involved in the Battle of Rathmines 1649. During the late 18th-century it had fallen into ruin. Two drawings of the castle by Beranger (1769) shows a ruinous double gabled structure attached to a courtyard. Beranger noted that the castle at Rathgar 'was very extensive, some of its wals so strong as to have a staircase in their thickness' (Harbison 1998, 94-5, 186-7). In 1782 Austin Cooper in his diaries describes the walls of large and extensive building(Ball 1903, 146). No visible surface trace.

Rathgar Castle was associated with the Cusack family from the early 17th century and was likely held by them for several generations. It is remembered for its historical connection to one of the prominent Anglo-Irish families in the region during the early modern period.