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MALAHIDE
CASTLE
Fighting Talbots, Trains, Dolls and Roundhead Ghosts
While most castles change hands over time, fall into disuse and
decay, their owners die out or end up on the wrong side of history,
losing their heads, the Talbots of Ireland managed to keep Malahide
Castle in the family from 1185 up until 1975, finally done in by
the modern curse of castle life, taxes. After the last Lord Talbot
died in 1973, the castle and its extensive ground north of Dublin
were sold to the state and are now a publicly managed museum and
park called the Malahide Demesne.
The
Malahide Castle legacy began in 1185, when the lands and harbor
of Malahide, were
granted to a Talbot by England’s King Henry
II, wrested from the last Viking King of Dublin. The oldest sections
of the castle, the ruins of a chapel, date back to the 12th century.
The castle as it now stands is mostly the result of major additions
and reconstruction in the 1700s with the distinctive towers finally
added in 1765. The Talbots lost control for 10 years in the 1600s
after the subjugation of Ireland by the Parliamentarian forces
of Oliver Cromwell. Malahide Castle was lucky to survive the destruction
of other fortresses visited by Cromwell, with the lands granted to
Miles Corbet, but after Cromwell lost his own head, Corbet met the
fate of traitors and the castle returned to the Talbots.
The tour of Malahide
Castle is accompanied by an audioguide, which leads from room to
room through nearly hidden doorways. Much of the
original furniture of Malahide was sold off with the castle, but
some tracked down and recovered so the house retains much of the
feeling of the Talbots. Many of the portraits on display at the castle
are on loan from the National Gallery. The signature chamber of the
castle tour is the Oak Room, the first stop of dark nearly black
oak paneling and a once secret doorway. The Great Hall is noted for
its famous painting depicting the Battle of Boyne, central to Irish
history, especially in the north (see St
Columbs Cathedral), along
with a portrait of Richard Talbot, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland,
known as "Fighting Dick Talbot", leader of the Catholics
loyal to King James II, who lost the battle to the protestant forces
of William of Orange. Legend has it that 14 members of the Talbot
clan sat for breakfast in the Great Hall of Malahide Castle the morning
of July 1, 1690, and all were dead by the time the battle was over
that evening.
Malahide
Ghosts
Malahide Castle is reputed to be haunted by five ghosts. Miles
Corbet, the Cromwellian roundhead who was hanged, drawn
and quartered, first appears in full armor then falls into four
sections - Sir Walter Hussey, the groaning
Lord Galtrim sacrificed himself defending the honor of his young
bride who then
immediately married
the rival who had killed
him with a spear - Lady Maud Pinkett, the very
same bride, a shrew in later life who runs through the castle
shouting at her unfortunate third husband - a jester named Puck who
was murdered, possibly for
bad comedy, but swore to haunt the castle until a master married
a bride of the people (Puck doesn’t seem to hang around anymore,
apparently gone when the furniture was sold, but if you see his
image in the photographs at Malahide, the joke may be on you) -
and every castle has its White Lady;
Malahide’s
is an anonymous apparition from a portrait which once hung in the
Great
Hall. Tours don’t promise a ghostly encounter, but be careful
you don’t get separated from your group.
Tara’s Palace Dollhouse and Childhood Memory
Also
located in the former carriage house on the grounds of Malahide
Castle with
separate admission are the doll collection of Tara’s
Palace. The “palace” is a large 1/12 scale doll house
incorporating the architecture of several of Ireland’s great
manor houses. The palace is in a room upstairs in the Craft Coutyard
coach house, while down stairs is a collection of dolls and toys,
including
a
doll house once belonging to the mother of Oscar Wilde.
Fry Model Railway
For model train
buffs, the Fry Model Railway is one of the world’s
largest working miniature model railways after Berlin (see Model
Railway Berlin) and York, covering
2,500 square feet with a unique collection of handmade model trains
begun in the 1920s by railway engineer and rail enthusiast Cyril
Fry who modeled his layout on Dublin. The Grand Transport Rail Complex
includes stations, bridges, trams, buses, and barges on Dublin's
Liffe River, with models of Cork and Heuston Stations, the O’Connell
Bridge and other recognizable Dublin landmarks.
Talbot Botanic Gardens
The Botanic Gardens, created by Lord Milo Talbot between 1948 until
his death in 1973 feature a walled garden of Victorian style and
several greenhouses with almost 5,000 species of plants focusing
on flora from the Southern Hemisphere situated behind the castle,
comprising several acres of shrubbery from Australia and Chile.
Malahide Castle is about a 20 minute drive from Dublin by car following Malahide Road. By public transport, city bus line 42 departs from Talbot Street in the center of Dublin and the DART train or suburban rail line stops at Malahide Village Station with a 15 minute walk through the park to get to the castle. Castle tours cost for adults is €7.50 and €4.70 for kids. A family ticket is available, also a combined ticket including the model railway and doll house. Malahide Castle is included on the Dublin Card available from Dublin Tourism. © Bargain Travel Europe
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Malahide
Castle
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SEE ALSO:
JAMESON
WHISKEY DISTILLERY TOUR
THE
BOOK OF KELLS AT TRINITY COLLEGE LIBRARY
DUBLIN’S GUINNESS STOREHOUSE
KING
JOHN’S CASTLE - LIMERICK
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