Athlone Castle

Athlone sits where the main east-west route crosses the Shannon, roughly at the centre of the country, and whoever held the bridge controlled movement between Leinster and Connacht. A stone castle has stood here since 1210, after a wooden one of 1129. Its two most consequential moments came in successive years: in 1690 a Williamite force under Douglas failed to take it, and in 1691 Ginkel's army bombarded the town with an artillery barrage described as one of the heaviest in European warfare to that date, took the bridge and the castle, and opened the road to Aughrim. The defence of the bridge by Sergeant Custume, who led men to tear up the planks under fire, gave Custume Barracks its name. The castle was remodelled as an artillery fortification in the nineteenth century, which is largely what stands. Inside is a modern visitor centre with eight exhibition spaces covering the sieges, the Shannon and the town.

History

The earliest recorded castle at Athlone was a wooden one built in 1129 by King Tairrdelbach Ua Conchobair of Connacht. The surviving stone castle was built in 1210 for King John by his justiciar, Bishop John de Gray of Norwich, as a free-standing polygonal tower on a motte; around 1276 it was ringed by a curtain wall with drum towers, and Sir William Brabazon reconstructed it in 1547 (Wikipedia, Athlone Castle).

What's there

• The keep and walls - Norman origins under nineteenth-century artillery remodelling.
• The siege exhibitions - the 1690 and 1691 attacks, in eight modern galleries.
• The bridge position - the crossing the castle exists to control.
• The Shannon view - from the walls over the river and the town.

When to go

Any season; the exhibition is indoors. Opening hours are reduced in winter. Allow two hours for the full exhibition circuit.

Before you go

Most of the visit is a modern museum rather than historic interiors. The medieval fabric is largely obscured by later rebuilding. Ticketed, with reduced winter opening.

Nearby

Clonmacnoise is south along the Shannon; Athlone's left bank has the older town.

Key facts