Athcarne Castle

Athcarne Castle is a ruined Elizabethan castle outside the town of Duleek in County Meath, Ireland.

The name Athcarne is thought to be derived from either Ath Cairn meaning the Bridge, or Fording Point at the Cairn, or burial mound, or alternatively from Ard Cairn, meaning High Cairn. There is a burial mound to the south east of the castle, across the Hurley river. Beryl Moore, the historian, wrote that the castle may actually be built on top of a cairn. These cairns were built around 4,000 years ago. In 861, the Vikings raided Newgrange and Moore wrote that the Cairn/s at Athcarne were also raided at that time.

In 1172, the lands at Athcarne were granted to the Anglo-Norman knight Hugo De Bathe, who came from Bath in England. He arrived in Ireland, either with Richard, Earl of Pembroke ("Strongbow") in 1170 or with Hugh 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. It was significantly extended in 1590 by the senior judge Sir William Bathe and his wife Janet Dowdall. 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 first James's grandson.

On 31st 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 1st 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 and Dardistown Castles. However, Cromwell's troops got there before them and captured all 3 castles on the 1st and 2nd of September. Cromwell now controlled the river Nanny, running parallel to and south of the Boyne, where Drogheda was located.

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