Rahinnane Castle

Rahinnane Castle is a tower house and National Monument located in County Kerry, Ireland.

Rahinnane Castle is located 1.73 km (1.07 mi) northwest of Ventry, in the west of the Dingle Peninsula.

The ringfort on the site was built in the 7th or 8th century AD. The Irish name was originally Rath Fhionnáin — Finan's ringfort.

Local tradition once claimed that this piece of land was the last in Ireland held by the Vikings, as it was so easily defended.

The stone tower house was built in the 15th or 16th century by the FitzGeralds, hereditary Knights of Kerry.

In 1602, towards the end of the Nine Years' War, the castle was taken by Sir Charles Wilmot. It was ruined during the Cromwellian conquest (1649–53).

The ancient earthwork featured a 9 metres (30 ft) deep ditch, an entrance in the southwest and a souterrain in the southeast. The castle was rectangular and three storeys tall. Most of the outer walls remain; on the inside there is some mural stairway, traces of vaulting and a blind arcade. Two corner turrets are also visible. More than half the outer walls of the three-storey castle remain.

Text adapted from “Rahinnane Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Rahinnane Castle ranks #5,585 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #104 of the 173 mapped in Ireland. Founded c. 750, it is older than 95% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 41 atlas entries founded in the 8th century. 3 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. See how Ireland compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗