Clontarf Castle
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Clontarf Castle (Irish: Caisleán Chluain Tarbh) is a much-modernised castle located in Clontarf, Dublin, Ireland. The area is famous as location of the Battle of Clontarf in 1014.
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[edit] History
The first castle on the grounds, of which no trace remains, was built in 1172 by either Hugh de Lacy, lord of Meath, or his tenant Adam de Phepoe. Clontarf was subsequently held by the Knights Templar and, after their suppression in 1308, passed to the Knights Hospitaller, until they were in turn deprived of it at the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The last prior, Sir John Rawson, was created Viscount Clontarf in 1541 in return for surrendering the castle and its lands to the crown.
In 1600 Queen Elizabeth I granted the estate to Sir Geoffrey Fenton, her secretary of state for Ireland, and it passed by marriage from his descendants to the King family. George King of Clontarf took part in the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and as a result his lands were confiscated.
At the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland the Clontarf estate was given to Captain John Blackwell, who afterwards transferred his interest to John Vernon, a younger son of the Vernon family of Sudbury Hall in Derbyshire. The Vernons were to remain in possession for some 300 years before selling up in 1954, the direct male line ending in 1967.
The current building dates to 1837 and was designed by the Irish architect William Vitruvius Morrison for John Edward Venables Vernon, the then owner, when the previous building was found to be unsafe. It is now the Clontarf Castle Hotel and has been significantly enlarged by the addition of modern wings.
[edit] Art, music and literature
Handel was a frequent visitor to the castle during his stay in Dublin for the premiere of Messiah in 1742. The lady of the house at that time, Dorothy Vernon, was from Hanover and "particularly intimate" with the composer.[1] He wrote a piece called Forest Music for her, said to combine German and Irish melodies.[2] The neighbouring area of Dollymount is traditionally said to be named after this lady.
Clontarf Castle was painted by J. M. W. Turner, although he never visited (it is said to be his only Irish subject); his patron Walter Fawkes was married to Maria Sophia Vernon of Clontarf and one of her sketches is believed to have been the basis of the finished watercolour. The work was mislabelled 'Caltarf Castle' and the subject was only positively identified in 1998; it depicts the castle previous to the present structure.[3]
Some childhood memories of the castle in the early years of the twentieth century appear in Enemies of Promise by the writer Cyril Connolly, whose mother was one of the Vernon family.
The castle is referred to by Irish rock group Thin Lizzy in the song "The Friendly Ranger at Clontarf Castle", the opening track on their 1971 debut album Thin Lizzy.
Before reopening as a hotel in 1998 the castle was for many years a popular cabaret venue; comedians Tom O'Connor and Maureen Potter and accordionist Dermot O'Brien have each released live recordings made there.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Streatfield, R. A. Handel. Methuen, 1909. p.168
- ^ Deutsch, Otto Eric Handel, a Documentary Biography. A. & C. Black, 1955. p.553
- ^ Magee, Audrey. "Art expert unmasks mystery castle". The Times (London) March 19th 1998
[edit] Bibliography
- McIntyre, Dennis. The Meadow of the Bull: a History of Clontarf. Future Print, Dublin, 1987.
- D'Alton, John. History of the County of Dublin. Dublin, 1838
- 'Vernon of Clontarf Castle' in Burke's Landed Gentry of Ireland (1912) pp.722-3
