Dunsany Castle and Demesne

53°32′08″N 06°37′15″W / 53.53556°N 6.62083°W / 53.53556; -6.62083

Dunsany Castle (Irish: Caisleán Dhún Samhnaí), Dunsany, County Meath, Ireland, is a modernised Anglo-Norman castle, started c. 1180 / 1181 by Hugh de Lacy, who also commissioned the original Killeen Castle, nearby, and the famous Trim Castle. It is one of Ireland's oldest homes in continuous occupation, possibly the longest occupied by a single family, having been held by the Cusack family and their descendants by marriage, the Plunketts, from foundation to the present day. The castle is surrounded by its demesne, the inner part of the formerly extensive Dunsany Estate. The demesne holds a historic church, a walled garden, a stone farm complex, and an ice house, among other features, and is home to a wide range of fauna.

Dunsany Castle and demesne, and other remnants of the family estates, are situated in and near the townland of Dunsany, County Meath, between the historic town of Trim and Dunshaughlin. At nearby Dunsany Cross is a hamlet, with a post office store, Catholic church and primary school, a GAA pitch with a clubhouse and bar and a mix of private housing with a small local authority development. The former Dower House is located just east of the hamlet. The demesne can be reached from the N3 road and from Trim, and is signposted from the Navan Road, from Dunshaughlin and from Warrenstown, near the former railway station for the area, at Drumree. The next village is Kilmessan, and today Dunsany and Kilmessan together form a single Catholic parish.

To the left and right of the front of the current castle are two mounds, believed to be artificial constructions, at least one (to the east) possibly part of an earlier Irish fortification, which would explain the name of the district – Dunsany is Dún Samhain in Irish, and a dún is a fort. It is believed that the eastern, or both of these, were later used as early Anglo-Norman points of defence, possibly on the motte and bailey style. The western one, with a formation sometimes likened to two dunes, was memorialised by Oliver St John Gogarty. There is a third mound further to the west also.

Dunsany Castle began with four stone towers, with walls between and a yard inside, in the late 12th century, construction being thought to have begun in 1180 on the orders of Hugh de Lacy. Foundations and the lower parts of the four main towers are likely original, and some interior spaces, notably an old kitchen, but much additional work has been carried out, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the current castle is more than three times the size of the original.

The castle, along with Killeen Castle, was held by the Cusacks, initially on behalf of the de Lacys, and passed by marriage in the early 15th century to the Plunketts. Originally, it and Killeen lay on a single estate but the first generation of Plunketts gave Killeen to the eldest son, and Dunsany to the younger, Christopher, following which the estate was divided, and the Castle descended in the hands of the Barons of Dunsany, who enjoyed almost uninterrupted ownership and control, aside from issues around Oliver Cromwell's operations in Ireland (the then Lady Dunsany defended the castle against an initial approach but the family were later forced out in 1649, some dying on the way to Connaught), and the aftermath of some other troubles between Ireland and England. They were cousins of Saint Oliver Plunket.

The Dunsany Estate was reduced by the operation of the Land Acts in the late 19th and early 20th century but the castle remained surrounded by its original demesne, and other estate lands remain around the district, some adjacent to the demesne and some remote.

Much of the work of the writer Lord Dunsany was done at the Castle, notably in a room in one of the building's towers. The author commissioned a two-storey extension to one side of the rear of the castle in 1910. Designed by George Jack from the office of William Morris, it was built in an Arts and Crafts style by 1914 and contains a spacious billiard room, two bedrooms, and other facilities.