The Taaffe family became Earls of Carlingford in 1661. They built a fortified tower house next to the harbour.
The castle as we see it today consists of a 4 storeys tower house on the south-southwest side and a lower building attached to the tower on the north-northeast side.
The tower house was built at the beginning of the 16th century and has a projecting turret on the west corner, and judging by the fact that there's a machicolation on the northwest corner of this turret, I think that the main entrance to the tower house was on that side.
At the end of the century a lower building was added on the north-northeast side of the tower house.
We visited this place for the first time on May 9th, 2000.
|