Glin Castle
Glin Castle is a Georgian country house and national heritage site located along the River Shannon in Glin, County Limerick, Ireland. The castle has belonged to the FitzGerald family for over seven hundred years and was the seat of the Knights of Glin.History
The FitzGeralds first settled in the area in the thirteenth century, following the Norman invasion of Ireland, at the nearby Shanid Castle. In the fourteenth century the Earl of Desmond elevated an illegitimate son to the hereditary knighthood of Glin. Glin Castle became the permanent seat of the Knight of Glin. The castle was attacked during the Desmond Rebellions in the sixteenth century, the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in the seventeenth century, the Jacobite risings and the Enforcement of the Penal Laws. In 1601 the castle was besieged by British troops and the knight's son was kidnapped.
In the late seventeenth century the castle had been abandoned and the FitzGerald family moved into a thatched longhouse adjacent to the castle. John Bateman FitzGerald, 23rd Knight of Glin married Margaretta Maria Fraunceis Gwyn in the 1780s and used her dowry to build a new castle in the Georgian style. Later Neoclassical elements were added to the building.
In 1923 a mob of Sinn Féin members attacked the castle.
In 1993 the FitzGeralds decided to turn the castle into a hotel to help pay for the upkeep. The hotel closed in 2008. In 2011 Desmond FitzGerald, 29th Knight of Glin died without a male heir. In 2015 the castle was put on auction at Christie's by Lady FitzGerald. The castle did not sell in auction. In an effort to keep the castle in the family, it was purchased by Catherine FitzGerald, daughter of the last Knight of Glin, and her husband Dominic West.
