Athcarne Castle

OVERVIEW

Athcarne Castle is a ruined Elizabethan castle outside Duleek in County Meath, built by the Bathe family. The name is thought to come either from Áth Cairn, the fording point at the cairn, or Ard Cairn, the high cairn; there is a burial mound south-east of the castle across the Hurley River. It stands roofless and unsafe on private farmland.

HISTORY

On 31 August 1649 Cromwell marched north from Dublin with 12,000 men to take Drogheda, and took Ballygarth Castle on the River Nanny at Julianstown. On 1 September the Earl of Ormonde ordered the Royalist troops in Drogheda to secure Athcarne, Bellewstown and Dardistown, the castles covering the other crossings of the Nanny; Cromwell's troops reached them first. In 1690 James II is said to have slept at Athcarne on his way to the Battle of the Boyne, six miles off — and he did in fact own the castle at the time, the Bathes renting it from him on a long lease.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

Of the several legends told about the castle, the one the county historians treat as most plausible is simply that James II stayed here. The castle is said locally to be haunted, and that is the whole of the record: no named witness, no dated account, no keeper's testimony. vetted = false — the history is solid and the haunting is hearsay. It is kept because the site is real and the claim is honestly reported in the published sources.

VISITING

Private farmland, and a dangerous unstabilised ruin. There is no public access and none should be sought.