This little village is a true “hidden gem”. At Ireland and Scotland Luxury Tours we love the reaction of our guests when we take them to “Quin”. Quin is famous for its well-preserved Franciscan Friary. This was established in 1443 on the remains of an Anglo-Norman castle. It has...
Much of County Cavan is boggy and forested. The county is also scattered with a hundred lakes. It is a landscape within which only the most durable ancient monuments have survived. Centuries ago the region was even more water-ridden and wooded than it is today. That made the...
The 13th century Anglo-Norman Roscrea Castle consists of a gate tower, curtain walls and two corner towers. In the courtyard stands Damer House, a Queen Anne-style residence with a magnificent staircase and Georgian garden. Just over the river lies St Cronan’s Monastery which has a...
There are the remains of the third largest 13th century castle in Ireland: a quadrangular court with cylindrical angle-towers, a strong rectangular gatehouse (upper storey 15th century) in the southern curtain, and a rectangular tower in the northern curtain. Towers and curtain have lost their battlements,...
The traditional prophecy, attributed to St. Columbia, that “a stranger mounted on a white horse and bearing a shield of painted birds shall conquer Ulster” appeared to be fulfilled when John de Courcy headed the Norman invasion of Ulster in 1177. Gradually the Anglo-Norman overlords...
Dunluce (Dun Lios, the Fort of Enclosures) an Anglo-Norman castle build by Richard de Burgh, Earl of Ulster, about 1300, was taken by the Chief of the MacDonnell clan Somhairle Buidhe (Yellow Charles) in 1560 who reconstructed it. In the wars with the Tudor England,...
The granite ridge that forms the lovely Wicklow and Blackstairs Mountains across the south-east corner of Ireland has given this region a distinctive character and history. For centuries it formed a barrier against invaders from the west. As a result, the inhabitants who settled on...
Island Of Saints And Scholars The coming of Christianity to Ireland in early 5th century was unlike its arrival any other country. Throughout much of the Roman Empire the religion was spread by and edict, imposed upon a conquered people by the occupying Roman administration. But...
Drogehda, County Louth This close packed town, with its old buildings clustered in 13th century streets, retains a medieval feel. Two towns were founded on either side of the River Boyne by the Anglo-Norman Hugh de Lacy. In 1412 they were united by charter to become...
The town of the ‘ford of the kings’ is an old walled settlement that once lay at the intersection of three kingdoms those of the O’Kellys, O’Flahertys and O’Heynes. The Anglo-Norman lord, Meiler de Bermingham, built a stout castle here in about 1240 and, as...