Castles of Tipperary

Ormond Castle, Carrick-on-Suir: Ireland's Finest Tudor Manor House

A medieval Butler castle on the Suir, with a Tudor house bolted onto its side by an earl who hoped his queen would come to stay.

Ormond Castle in Carrick-on-Suir is the best Elizabethan manor house in Ireland, according to Heritage Ireland, and it was built in 1565 by Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond, known as Black Tom. It is two buildings in one: a medieval Butler castle and bawn on the riverside, with a Tudor house of large windows and fine plaster ceilings added alongside. It is open to visitors on guided tours, and it is about 35 km from Ardfinnan.

A Butler stronghold on the Suir

The Butlers held Carrick-on-Suir from 1315, when Edmund Butler acquired the castle. His son James became the first Earl of Ormond in 1328. The oldest part of what survives is a mid-15th-century walled bawn with towers at its north-east and north-west corners. It is the defensive core of the place, and it explains why the Tudor house looks so much more comfortable than it should be in a border-country lordship.

Black Tom and the 1565 house

Thomas Butler succeeded to the family estates in 1546. By the account on Patrick Comerford’s blog he served Elizabeth I as Lord Treasurer of Ireland from 1558, and became a Privy Councillor and Knight of the Garter. He died in 1614, aged 83. He and Elizabeth were distant cousins, and Heritage Ireland says he built the house as a tribute to her. Comerford adds that he hoped she would visit. She never did.

The year is carved into the house. A Latin inscription above one of the long gallery’s fireplaces dates the work to 1565, the seventh year of Elizabeth’s reign. That year also saw the Battle of Affane, in which Butler’s forces fought the Earl of Desmond, a feud that fed into the Desmond Rebellions.

The long gallery and the plasterwork

The showpiece is the long gallery on the first floor. Comerford puts it at about 100 feet, and says it was once hung with tapestries. It has two carved stone fireplaces and a frieze and ceiling of Elizabethan plasterwork. The ceiling had largely collapsed before restoration.

The stucco is the reason people travel here. It includes:

• Queen Elizabeth flanked by the figures of Equity and Justice
• a frieze with heads of Elizabeth and her half-brother Edward VI
• Tudor roses
• the initials TO (for Thomas Ormond) and ER (Elizabeth Regina)

Discover Ireland calls the portraits some of the finest early examples of the craft in Ireland.

Why a Tudor house in Tipperary?

By the 1560s the Butlers were among the most powerful families in Ireland, and Thomas Butler was close to the English crown. A house of large mullioned windows and plaster ceilings, set against a fortified bawn, was a statement of that loyalty. Heritage Ireland describes the great hall as running almost the full length of the building and decorated with fine stucco. Compare it with the defensive castles elsewhere in the county, such as Ardfinnan: the Tudor house at Carrick belongs to a landscape that had learned to value comfort and display as well as walls.

Decline and rescue

James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde, favoured the house in the 17th century, but the Butlers left it after his death in 1688. Tenants moved in, and in 1816 a solicitor named Wogan began demolishing many of the old buildings. Rooms were subdivided as the tenants grew poorer. The Butler family kept the property into the 20th century and it passed to the Irish state in 1947, derelict but still roofed. Restoration was led by the Office of Public Works, and included remoulding damaged plasterwork from casts of the originals.

Visiting Ormond Castle

Heritage Ireland lists guided tours, an audiovisual show and an exhibition. It warns of a spiral staircase and asks visitors to wear sensible footwear. The site is seasonal, and tour times and prices change, so check heritageireland.ie before you go. Discover Ireland suggests allowing up to an hour.

From Ardfinnan

Carrick-on-Suir is about 35 km from Ardfinnan, roughly 40 minutes by road, and both stand on the River Suir. Ardfinnan is a Norman castle of 1185 and is still a private home, but it can be seen from the village bridge. Together they make a good pair: one castle built to hold a river crossing, one rebuilt to impress a queen. For more along the route, see Castles of Tipperary and our Tipperary castles hub.