| Athcarne Castle | |
|---|---|
 Ruins of Athcarne Castle | |
 | |
| Built | 1590 |
| Official name | Athcarne Castle |
| Reference no. | 240[1] |
Athcarne Castle is a ruinedElizabethan castle outside the town ofDuleek inCounty Meath,Ireland.
The nameAthcarne is thought to be derived from eitherÁth Cairn meaning the Fording Point at the Cairn, or burial mound, or alternatively fromArd Cairn, meaning High Cairn. There is aburial mound to the southeast of the castle, across the Hurley River. Dr. Beryl Moore, the Meath historian, wrote that the castle may actually be built on top of acairn. These cairns were built around 4,000 years ago. In 861, theVikings raidedNewgrange and Dr. Moore wrote that the Cairn(s) at Athcarne were also raided at that time.
A location calledCerne, Cernae or Cerna in early historic times, encompassing the townlands of Carnes[2] to the east of the ford at Athcarne, was noted as the principal burial site for the men of eastMidhe andBrega (Cernoi nominatur, al. Cernai .i. coernia daiġ is ann atá primreilec Airthir Midi ocus Breaġ[3]). This included bothsíd Cerna[4] andCnoc Cerna, the hill of Cerna, holding the bodies of the sons and grandsons ofÁed Slaine mentioned in the Metrical Dindshenchus, located at the western end of the long ridge ofCrockafotha and south of Duleek.[5] The name also appears inTochmarc Emire as part of the route south fromBrú na Bóinne betweenCleitech andLusk outlined in the riddling colloquy ofCú Chulainn. TheCerna associated with a brokengeas ofConaire Mór concerning the hunting of thecloen-míla Cernai (the crooked beasts of Cerne), a place located near theSlíghe Chualann in theTogail Bruidne Dá Derga, was probably located along the Boyne at Kilcarn, nearNavan.
In 1172, the lands at Athcarne were granted to theAnglo-Normanknight Hugo De Bathe, who came fromBath in England. He arrived in Ireland, either with Richard "Strongbow", Earl of Pembroke in 1170 or withHugh de Lacy, Lord of Meath in 1171. It is likely that he built a defensive structure on the site which evolved into a tower house over the next few hundred years.[citation needed]
It was significantly extended in 1590 by the High Court judge SirWilliam Bathe and his wife Janet Dowdall.[6] On Sir William's death in 1597 it passed to his brother James Bathe, and then to James's heirs: James Bathe, who owned Athcarne in the 1640s, was probably the earlier James's grandson.
On 31 August 1649, Oliver Cromwell marched north from Dublin with 12,000 men to take Drogheda from the 'Royalists'. He captured Ballygarth Castle on the River Nanny at Julianstown, where it enters the sea. This was a strategically important point to control. On 1 September, the Earl of Ormonde issued an instruction to the Royalist troops in Drogheda to capture three other castles near the crucial crossing points on the river Nanny, and hence strategically important: they were Athcarne,Bellewstown andDardistown. However, Cromwell's troops got there before them and captured all 3 castles on 1 and 2 September. Cromwell now controlled the river Nanny, running parallel to and south of the Boyne, where Drogheda was located.
Following its capture, Athcarne was granted to Colonel Grace, one of Cromwell's officers. James Bathe and his family then moved toAshbourne. James Bathe died sometime before 1660. His son, Luke Bathe, continued lobbying the Crown for the return of their estates. Despite petitioning to get his lands back, under the SecondAct of Settlement 1662, Athcarne, as well as many of the estates originally taken by Cromwell were transferred into the name of the Duke of York, the future KingJames II of England. The Bathe family never regained legal ownership of Athcarne, although they were allowed to live there: in 1668, the Duke of York allowed Sir Luke Bathe to rent Athcarne and 1,200 acres from him on a 99-yearlease from 1668 for £430 in total, which was considered a "peppercorn" or nominal amount at the time. This lease expired in 1767. However, the future King kept all the other Bathe estates,Drumcondra,Glasnevin,Ballybough,Balgriffin,Clontarf, andBaldoyle, all inCounty Dublin, and Laudenstown inCounty Kildare, besides valuable other property inDublin city andDrogheda.
Of many legends about the Castle, which is said to be haunted, the most plausible is that King James II slept here on his way to the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, the Castle being only six miles from the battlefield. In fact, James II actually owned Athcarne at the time and the Bathe family were simply renting it from him on a long lease (see paragraph above).
_(page_1_crop).jpg)
The Bathe family eventually left the castle about 1700 and it was owned by the Garnett family for the next 100 years or so. Around 1830, it was bought by the Gernon family who significantly remodelled it. They left the original tower house in place but demolished the Elizabethan mansion house built by William Bathe in 1590 and built a more modern extension with larger windows as was the fashion at the time. They changed the orientation so the front of the house was south-facing and created a boating lake in the field at the front of the castle. This was achieved every winter by creating a dam in the river Hurley, you can still see the dam to this day.
The Gernon family experienced a downturn in fortunes and eventually, the Castle was sold at auction in 1939. The Castle was gutted and the parts were sold off for architectural salvage. A plan to demolish the castle and use the rubble to extend roads in the area came to nothing, and eventually what remained of the Castle passed into the care of the Irish State.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Athcarne-Castle/1512769065639078?ref=hl
53°37′19″N6°26′28″W / 53.6220°N 6.4412°W /53.6220; -6.4412