- Type
- Castle
- Origins
- 1228 · 13th century per Wikidata: founding, first mention or construction
- Style
- medieval architecture
- Coordinates
- 53.5348°, -9.2844°
History
The first castle here was built in 1228 by the Anglo-Norman de Burgos after their victory over the Irish O'Connors. In 1589, after fighting with the Burkes, Sir Richard Bingham, Governor of Connacht, built a fort within the walls. In 1715 the Browne family turned the place into a hunting lodge in the style of a French château. Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness bought the estate in 1852, and his son Arthur, Lord Ardilaun, enlarged it in Victorian Gothic style and laid out a vast park. The castle has been a hotel since 1939.
What to see
The hotel is surrounded by hundreds of hectares of parkland and woods on Lough Corrib, also open to outside visitors. Ireland's School of Falconry is based here, and boats leave the pier for Inchagoill island with its early medieval church ruins. A few minutes' walk away is the village of Cong with the ruins of its Augustinian abbey.
Wikipedia article Official website Wikidata Q725274
Popularity: articles about this site in 16 Wikimedia projects (Wikipedia language editions and others).