Nenagh Castle - County Tipperary

Nenagh Castle, Co. Tipperary
Theobald fitzWalter was the son and eventual heir of Hervey Walter of Lancashire in the north of England, and hereditary butler of the king of England. The duty attached to this office was to attend the coronation of the kings of England and to present the king with the first cup of wine.
In 1185, Theobald first arrived in Ireland in the royal entourage of Prince John (later King John), who had been recently appointed as Lord of Ireland by his father Henry II.
Theobald was appointed chief butler of Ireland in 1192 and in time, the family name fitzWalter was replaced by the surname Butler.
Before Price John left Ireland in 1185, he made speculative grants of land throughout Munster to various men. Theobald received one such grant of lands in north Tipperary.
However, he had to wait until 1194 and the death of Domnall Mór Ua Briain, who had held the Normans out of north Munster for 25 years. With Domnall’s death, the way was clear for a Norman conquest of north Munster and Theobald Walter established Nenagh as the political and military centre of his newly conquered lands.
The castle he built here served as the main seat of the Butler family until the second half of the fourteenth century. It is situated at the north end of Nenagh town, which was also founded by Theobald fitzWalter at the turn of the 13th century.
The dominant feature of Nenagh castle is the cylindrical keep with walls up to 5m thick. The original keep had three storeys above a ground floor basement. It now rises to a height of 30m, which includes the top storey added in the mid-19th century as a belfry.
The second floor was the main public hall of the castle when it was first constructed. Here we find an embrasure with a fine, chevron-decorated arch. This form of decoration dates to around 1200, and is more typically associated with churches from this period. Its use here indicates a special space in the room reserved for the lord of the castle.
The third storey was probably added in the mid-13th century to provide a more private hall for the lord and his family. This room features the remains of a large fireplace that formerly had a stone-built hood.
Beside the fireplace is a seated window with finely carved decorative mouldings around the inner embrasure. These carvings suggest that this level was added in the 1240s by Theobald fitzWalter’s grandson, also Theobald (3rd Chief Butler).
Today the keep has the appearance of a freestanding tower, but it originally stood on the north side of a courtyard surrounded by a massive curtain wall, in turn enclosed by a large moat.
The entrance to the castle courtyard was via the twin-towered gatehouse, which was defended with a portcullis and a drawbridge that could be lowered over the moat that surrounded the curtain wall. To the rear of the gatehouse are the remains of a two-storey hall that was built in the late 13th century, probably by Theobald the 4th Chief Butler.
For many years the circular keep was a shell and the upper levels were inaccessible. In 2008, a major programme of conservation works was carried-out by the Office of Public Works.
These works included the installation of a modern viewing platform at the top of the keep, designed to act as a roof to protect the building below. Wooden floors were added throughout the building, recreating the techniques used by the original builders to construct the floors of the keep.
As a result, visitors today can appreciate the life of an Anglo-Norman lord in one of the best surviving circular keeps anywhere in Europe.
Nenagh Castle is a National Monument in State Care since 1966, and is managed by the Office of Public Works.