Clonyn Castle, County Westmeath
Photo © Peter Gavigan, 27 March 2008
Clonyn Castle, County Westmeath
Photo © Peter Gavigan, 2001
Clonyn Castle, County Westmeath Photo © Peter Gavigan, 27 March 2008 |
Clonyn Castle, County Westmeath Photo © Peter Gavigan, 2001 |
Clonyn Castle also known as Delvin Castle, is situated
in Delvin, County
Westmeath some 18 km from Mullingar,
in Ireland along the N52.
The first castle (now in ruin) is believed to have been built in 1181
by Hugh de Lacy the Norman,
Lord of Meath for his brother-in-law, Sir Gilbert de Nugent. Sir Gilbert
De Nugent originally from Nogent-le-Rotrou
area France, came to Ireland with Hugh de Lacy in 1171.
Gilbert settled on some land in Delvin and was granted the title Baron
of Delvin.
The ruins of Nugent Castle remain near the center of the town. In 1639 Richard Nugent build another more recent castle, situated on the dominating ground, and now overlooking Delvin urbanised area today, may be referred to as either Delvin or Clonyn Castle.
In the post World War II period, the castle served briefly as a home for approximately 100 Jewish children, most of them orphans of the Holocaust.
A golf course open to the public lies behind the more recent castle, 500m from Delvin centre.
Most of Wikipedia's text and many of its images are licensed under the
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (CC BY-SA)
