Ardgillan Castle

Ardgillan Castle is an 18th Century country house and grounds. It was originally called Prospect House and boasts spectacular views over Drogheda Bay to the hulking Mourne Mountains in the north. The interior of the house was painstakingly restored to its historic designs in the early 1990s. The name Ardgillan comes from the Irish name 'Ard Chioll' meaning High Wood. The house and grounds, which cover 194 acres of woodland, pastures and gardens, were bought by Fingal Council in the 1960s and are open to the public.

The house was built by the Taylor family, who originally came from Sussex in England. Following the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, the land in this area was appropriated by the new administration. This was part of Cromwell's policy of paying his soldiers and financial backers with grants of land seized from the original Irish owners. Many of those who were awarded land did not actually want to move to Ireland so sold it on. The Taylor family, who seem to have had an eye for an opportunity, decided to sell their estate in England and use the proceeds to buy Irish land for a bargain price from these motivated sellers. The Taylors acquired enough land in this area to form a substantial estate. They started building the house in 1738 and it was expanded by subsequent generations of the family.

Our visit

We visited on a pleasant autumnal Sunday morning. We parked in the car park near the entrance to the grounds and walked down the hill to the house (there is a car park at the bottom of the hill nearer to the house but access to this was limited to authorised vehicles on the day of our visit). The house can be viewed only as part of a tour, which are provided on demand throughout the day. The tours are relatively inexpensive and all the guides are volunteers.

Our tour guide was a very knowledgeable and friendly local man who clearly had a passion for the house and its history. The stories he told us about the house and its colourful residents were fascinating. I won't repeat them here though - you'll have to go on the tour yourself! A visit is definitely recommended and will allow you to make a small contribution towards the substantial costs of maintaining the house, which is now a valuable resource for the local community.

Getting there

Ardgillan Castle can be reached by road south from Drogheda (Irish: Droichead Attha) along the M1 to Junction 6 and then to Balbriggan (Irish: Baile Brigin). It is situated on raised coastline between Balbriggan and Skerries. It is an easy day trip from Dublin.