Survey Data
Reg No
22404101
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Technical
Previous Name
Brittas
Original Use
Country house
Date
1820 - 1840
Coordinates
212616, 161467
Date Recorded
30/06/2004
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached castle, built c.1830, and unfinished except for front elevation and lower parts of other walls. Polygonal battlemented towers to corners of front elevation. Ashlar limestone walls with battered base. Round-arch loop windows, with double-ogee light to west side of front part. Machicolations to towers and west wall. Four-centred-arch entranceway, with chamfered surrounds and with slots for portcullis. Castle surrounded by moat.
Appraisal
Built by Major Henry Langley, this castle was intended to be the first nineteenth-century 'archaeological' castle in Ireland. Designed by William Vitruvius Morrison, work was abandoned in 1834 when Langley was struck by a falling stone on site and killed. The building retains many of its original interior and exterior features, including a dungeon and a working moat. The finely-cut limestone masonry used throughout the building attests to the skill of the nineteenth-century craftsmen and stone masons. Brittas Castle forms an imposing and striking silhouette on the surrounding countryside.