Ireland & the back arse of nowhere #14: Trim Castle (Those medieval...

I am sorry for having to do this to you again, but I have another castle blog up my sleeves. There are still interesting parts of Ireland that I haven't covered in my Ireland series. And so, here we have another one. This blog will be about Trim Castle, the largest Norman castle in Ireland.

We arrived at Trim castle just before lunchtime. And to give you an idea, there wasn't too much time to spend at Trim Castle (as usual). The bus driver parked his bus on Castle Street, next to a gorgeous grass field that Ireland has so many of. In the middle of that field, an old castle wall... It somehow felt extremely out of place because, on the other side of the road, the 20th-century houses of Trim were lined up.

Don't get me wrong. The walls were absolutely impressive. And at the same time, the houses of Trim were cute too. But they were just super weird together!

We followed the wall to the entrance. But near the wall, we ran into a sign letting everyone know that Trim Castle is more famous than you might be aware of. Apparently, it was one of the film locations for the movie Braveheart in 1995 (with Mel Gibson). I wouldn't have recognised it even if I knew that and even now it was challenging to find which part of the castle I would be able to see in the movie.

But I did it! They added a huge extra bit of "castle-wall" to the original one. Below you can see a photo of the castle next to a still from the movie. Hard to see, but they are both from the same angle. Only where the castle now stops on the left, they put an additional gate (centre) and wall(left) for the movie. The arch is visible in both pictures, so that might help.

^Now

^{Still from the movie Braveheart}

In the late 12th century, Trim Castle was built on the banks of the river Boyne (which runs past many other interesting historical sites) on the site of an earlier wooden fortress that was destroyed. It was constructed in many phases over the years, but in general, it is said the castle was finished 30 years later.

You will enter the castle through one of the two main entrance gates that Trim Castle used to have. The other one is the one you see in most of my photos though. This one is called Dublin Gate and used to have 2 draw-bridges. There is an arch under the gate where a moat would have gone under. And behind the gate is a gorgeous (but scary) barbican tower that is very well preserved.

This was one of the nastiest parts of the castle, I'd say. Many people died around this tower. If you look closely you can see why. It has a high concentration of arrowslits through which archers would launch arrows. On top of that, you will find some sally gates here and there for surprise attacks. And when you think that was it, they also included some murder holes in the roof of the gate to treat the intruders on a boiling oil shower.

^{Dublin Gate}

Thankfully, entering the castle nowadays is pretty safe. It costs you a little money but that is about it. If you're lucky you can join a guided tour of the keep, which we weren't able to join.

From the outside, it looks impressive enough. The keep of Trim Castle is a 3 storey building in a cruciform shape with 20 corners (feel free to count). Although it was within the very strong fortified walls, there was a moat around the keep as well. You can see where that ran by the dent in the grass between the bench and the keep.

The keep was the epicentre of the castle. There were 2 larges halls inside it, with many private stairs, bedrooms, a grand fireplace with chimney etc. There was also a chapel inside the keep. It sounded very cosy, sort of.

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^{The keep}

But we weren't able to check the keep from the inside. And so we walked around the area a little to see what else they had.

The brown flat area with some old walls is what remains of the Great Hall where many feasts were held. To the left of it, you can see the remains of the solar, which would be the private living area.

This whole area is closest to the river Boyne, so you can imagine that this would also be the location where the supplies would be taken off the boats. If I understood correctly, that would happen from the basement of the solar.

^{Where the large hall used to be}

It was almost time to return to our bus. But I still wanted to check out the view from a distance. I walked to the 'Yellow Speeple' (all that is left of an abbey from those times). It was a bit of a climb, but from here you have the perfect spot to capture the whole castle in one photo.

IMG_2913 1.jpg

I crossed the River Boyne again and decided to take the left turn instead of the right one that would lead me to the normal road again. It was a nice little walk in a more quiet part of the castle. Before I knew it I reached the last tower of the curtain wall and I was back on the grass, ready to jump on the bus.