History & Heritage

Roscommon Castle

The Castle of Roscommon, now in ruins, is situated at the northern extremity of the town, overlooking on the west side a grassy plain for some months of the year under water and known as Loughnaneane. It was in 1269 that this Castle was built by the Chief Justice Robert de Ufford, a Norman magnate (Chief Justice). Some year’s later expansion was planned and the notable figure of William of Prene, a Welshman and Master Carpenter was employed in supervising the building. He was also involved in the additions to the Norman Castle of Rinn Dun on Lough Ree and Limerick Bridge which collapsed, as State papers tell us due to his eighty people were drowned. The Castle is quadrangular in plan with four lofty towers at each corner; two towers guarding the entrance gate on the east side and a “pons de vascule” or see-saw trap entrance on the west side.

One of Queen Elizabeth the I’s ablest Captains Colonel Nicholas had the Castle as his residence in 1580 when he was President of Connacht for his conduct in holding the Lordship of Roscommon for the Queen and she granted him one of the biggest estates in Connacht. Sir Henry Sydney captured the Castle from the Irish in 1566 and helped stabilise the area for the coming of Malby later on.
Malby is reported to have made the Elizabethan style addition to the windows about 1580.
Lord Ranelagh, Richard Jones lived here for some time and left a bequest for two Charter Schools to be built one in Roscommon and the other in Athlone. He died in 1712.

Tradition has it that the Castle was burnt by retreating Jacobite troops from the Battle of Aughrim in 1691. A plan of the Castle survives in the Public Record Office, London and is said to be from Nicholas Malby’s own hand. It shows an advanced piece of town planning from 1580. The Castle has an assemblage of walls, gun emplacements, town gates, and a series of streets with townhouse and church. This plan would appear never to have been implemented due to cost and the constant state of war at the period up to 1601.

Traces of lake dwellings or crannogs have been discovered in the lake. The most direct route out of the Castle to the east is still known as the Long Walk (The Walk) and is said to be named such due to the training of horses along this stretch of ground and is marked on the Earl of Essex map from 1736 drawn by Francis Plunket.

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