Overview
One thing to get straight before you go: you can’t go inside Taaffe’s Castle. The four-storey tower house on Old Quay Lane, a short walk in from Carlingford harbour, is a National Monument that has been closed to the public for safety, so the visit is an external one, read from the street. The bar next door trades under the castle’s name and stays open; the tower itself does not.
Built around 1520, it went up as a fortified merchant’s house and secure trading store, back when Carlingford’s herring wealth was worth defending. Even from the lane it is worth five minutes: the bulk of the tower, the corner turret and the carved windows are all plain to see.
History
Carlingford’s medieval prosperity rested on the herring shoals of Carlingford Lough. By the 14th and 15th centuries the town held royal trading charters and ran its own mint, one of the more significant ports on Ireland’s east coast. The Taaffes, a prominent Anglo-Irish merchant family, built their townhouse to serve as both a residence and a locked store for valuable goods, with living quarters stacked above.
The family climbed. They became Earls of Carlingford in 1661 under Charles II, and Nicholas Taaffe, the 2nd Earl, died at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690; the line later emigrated to Australia. The building outlasted the Cromwellian and Williamite wars that wrecked much of the town around it, and in 2021 funding under the Community Monuments Fund was approved for its refurbishment.
It comes with a ghost, too. More than one account describes a headless white figure drifting through the castle, usually said to be Nicholas Taaffe himself.
Architecture
Taaffe’s Castle is a textbook early 16th-century tower house: a rectangular tower of four storeys, capped by a small turret at the south-west corner. A later two-storey extension added living space. Inside – not that you can currently reach it – a narrow spiral staircase winds clockwise, forcing an attacker to climb with his sword hand against the wall while a defender came down free; a murder-hole covers the entrance, and garderobes sit at three levels in the north-east corner. The individually carved limestone windows carry Romanesque touches that were fashionable at the time.
You can read most of that from outside. The turret, the window carvings and the two build phases are all legible from the lane, which is just as well given the door stays shut.
Visiting
The castle interior is closed, so treat it as a look-from-the-street stop on Carlingford’s medieval trail. Immediately beside it, Taaffe’s Bar trades on the name and claims origins as far back as 1530, one of several Carlingford pubs to make an “oldest in Ireland” pitch. It runs a pub, disco bar and beer gardens, hosts live bands and DJs, and can arrange accommodation and hen and stag bookings; details are at taaffescastle.com. Hours vary with the season, so check ahead rather than turning up to a locked door.
Getting here
It is a five-minute walk from the harbour and the start of the Carlingford Greenway. Driving, use the public car parks on the north side of town near the former railway station; on-street parking directly outside is limited, so come early on summer weekends. Bus Éireann runs between Carlingford, Dundalk and Newry, and the Carlingford Lough Ferry gives a scenic link to Greencastle.
Nearby
Taaffe’s Castle sits in the middle of Carlingford’s compact medieval core. From here it is a short walk to King John’s Castle above the harbour and the old Mint, where the town struck its coins; the Carlingford Heritage Centre fills in the maritime and trading history. For a longer day, the Slieve Foy loop climbs above the town for wide views over the border and the lough. Give the castle five minutes on the way past, and spend the rest of the time on the walk up.