Killeen Castle was erected in 1181 by Hugh de Lacy as part of a key castle defence system for north Leinster, and its history stretches back over 800 years.
The castle served as the seat of the Plunkett family, Earls of Fingall, from 1403 until the 1950s. The Plunkett family is one of the oldest of the major Anglo-Irish dynasties. Due to the Earls’ forced absence during multiple uprisings and national instability, Killeen Castle deteriorated from the late seventeenth to the late eighteenth centuries.
The 8th and 9th Earls commissioned famous architects Francis Johnson and later James Sheil to modernise the castle in the early nineteenth century, resulting in the architecture that exists today.
The 8th and 9th Earls commissioned famous architects Francis Johnson and later James Sheil to modernise the castle in the early nineteenth century, resulting in the architecture that exists today.
