About
Beside Grallagh Bridge on a tributary of the River Suir, a few kilometres south of Horse and Jockey, Grallagh Castle is a four-storey Butler tower house built around 1500 and still ringed by the remnants of its bawn wall. In 1533 James Butler, 10th Baron of Dunboyne, gave it to his son Peter, and the Civil Survey of the 1650s found 'a good castle' here with a bawn and a few cabins. The barrel-vaulted ground floor, lit by arrow slits and still showing the marks of the wicker used to shape the vault, is entered through a doorway broken through later; above, a mural stair, murder holes over the entrance, window seats and a small vaulted chamber with a fireplace fill the upper floors. The OPW repaired the quoins and window mullions in the early 1940s. Reviewers say only the ground floor can be entered. A private farmhouse adjoins the castle behind a wall, so visitors keep to the field.
Open in daylightFrom OPW Heritage Ireland's published times
- Open any reasonable time in daylight
Opening times may change at short notice.
An unguided open-air national monument in OPW's care with no staff and no facilities. OPW warns that care and caution should be kept throughout a visit to its unguided sites.
Reviewers report that only the ground floor can be entered; the stair and upper floors are closed.
Entry by a kissing gate into wet, uneven pasture. A private farmhouse adjoins on the south-west behind a wall. No toilets.
Photo: Grallagh Castle's four-storey tower house behind a stone wall in pasture under a grey sky. Mike Searle, CC BY-SA 2.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Castles_of_Munster,_Grallagh,_Tipperary_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1542258.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.
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