Ashtown Castle

A late tower house called Ashtown Castle stands beside the former Under Secretary's Lodge or Papal Nuncio, originally the manor of Castleknock and prior to the Dissolution was held by the Hospital of St. John Without, Newgate. The lands had been granted in the early 13th century to the Hospital by Hugh Tyrrell, First Baron of Castleknock (Ball 1906, 187). The castle stands in the townland and parish of Castleknock (Caisleán Cnucha), in the barony of Castleknock. John Connell, of Ashtown, was seneschal to the Duke of Ormond in the 17th century and was described by Lord Orrery as a 'notorious rogue and tory' who forfeited his lands in Kerry and Dublin including the Phoenix Park (O'Connell 1892, 312). The 1654-56 Civil Survey of Dublin recorded that in 1641 the proprietor of the lands of Ashtown was 'John Connell of Dublin Protestant' who was in possession of 'one Castle with two Thatcht houses vallewed by the Jury at Eight Pounds. Theire is alsoe one smale Orchard'(Simington 1945, 247). In 1664 the forfeited estate was purchase by Sir William Flower, who was the second keeper of the Park (Ball 1906, 188). Ashtown Castle is depicted on Petty's 1685 Map of County Dublin where it is depicted as a tower house type building (Petty 1685).

Today the castle stands beside the OPW Visitor's Centre to the Phoenix Park. Prior to it's restoration by the OPW in the late 1980's, the tower house was hidden within the walls of a Georgian house once occupied by the under-secretary for Ireland. When that house was demolished in the late 1980, the tower house was revealed. Ball (1906, 187) recorded the following details about Ashtown; 'a castle, stood on the ground now occupied by the Under-Secretary's Lodge, and some portion of it is still to be found incorporated in the modern structure'.

The castle stands three storeys high with an attic level. It is roughly rectangular in plan (int. dims. L 6.37m; Wth 4.96m; wall Wth 0.92m) with a stair turret in the SE corner that projects externally. Built of coursed masonry with dressed quoins. The ground floor was defended on the W by a musket loop. There is a blocked entrance in the S wall W of the stair turret and another round-arched doorway in the W wall. The interior was lit by a square-headed opening in the S wall. Georgian windows had been inserted into the ground floor. A timber floor over ground is held with corbels. First floor interior is lit by a slit ope on the E wall. The lintel for the original fireplace is present in the E wall. The second floor also had a lintelled fireplace held with corbels and an interior lit by a square-headed ope in the E wall. An early 17th century roof-truss in the E gable provides a date for at least the construction of the roof.

Castle described by the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (NIAH) as a; 'Detached three-storey fortified tower house with square-plan stair tower to southeast, built c.1605. Now in use as heritage centre. Pitched and graded slate saddle-back roof behind parapets, with dressed stone chimneystack with recesses and coping and stone steps to upper west gable. Squared rainwater openings to base of parapets. Walling is uncoursed limestone rubble. Square-headed window openings, with roughly stepped and chamfered stone architraves and sills, and with hood-moulding over upper south window. Windows replacement metal casements. Loops to tower. In-stepped round-headed doorcase to south with dressed stone architraves and replacement timber studded door. Set within mature landscaped gardens of former Ashtown Demesne, with Phoenix Park Visitor Centre and walled garden to west. Ground plan of former Ashtown Lodge marked by low box hedging. Surrounding garden and trees laid out by Ninian Niven c.1840' (NIAH Reg. No. 50060048; https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/50060048/ashtown-castle-castleknock-within-phoenix-park-dublin-city).