Charleville Castle
Charleville Forest Castle is a Gothic-style castle located in Co. Offaly, Ireland, bordering the town of Tullamore, near the Shannon River. It is considered one of the finest of its type in the country.HistoryThe land where the Charleville estate and castle were created is situated in Ireland's most ancient primordial oak woods, once the haunting grounds of Ireland's druids. In the 6th century it was part of the ancient monastic site of Lynally, which itself was in the ancient Durrow monastic settlement.Later, in the early days of Ireland's colonisation, when the city of Dublin felt threatened by the wild tribes of the West, these lands became the focal point for the first Marian, and later more violent Elizabethan, plantations. By the mid-1500s the lands that were originally ruled by the O'Molloy clan were securely "planted" and in the hands of the Moore family. From this point on a dynasty was established which endured into the late nineteenth century, commencing with the grant of the Tullamore area, comprising some 5000 acres, to Sir John Moore in 1622. At that time the Tullamore estate included a ruined castle, ten cottages and two water mills. Sir Robert Forth, who leased the lands from Thomas Moore (son and heir of Sir John), built a mansion house c.1641 in what is now the Charleville demesne. Charles Moore, Lord Tullamore, grandson of Thomas, eventually regained possession of the estate and when he died in 1674 it went via his sister to Charles William Bury. Charles William was later (1806) created the 1st Earl of Charleville in a second creation of the title.
