Birr Castle

Birr Castle is a large fortress within the city of Birr in County Offaly, Ireland. It is the home of The 7th Earl of Rosse, and as such the residential regions of the citadel are not open to the general public, although the grounds and gardens of the demesne are publicly accessible. There has been a fort at the website since 1170, and from the 14th to the seventeenth century the O'Carroll family dominated from here over a place known as "Ely O'Carroll". After the loss of life of Sir Charles O'Carroll, Sir Laurence Parsons become granted Birr Castle and 1,277 acres of land in 1620. Parsons engaged English masons within the production of a new citadel on the website.

This creation befell, not at the web page of the O'Carroll's Black Tower, however at its gatehouse. "Flankers" have been delivered to the gatehouse diagonally at either facet, giving the fortress the plan it keeps nowadays. After the dying of Sir Laurence Parsons and of his elder son Richard, the citadel exceeded to his younger son William. During the Irish Rebellion of 1641 William became besieged at Birr for fifteen months by means of Catholic forces. After the civil conflict, William's son Laurence refurnished the fort.