The tower house contributes an archaeological significance to the site while the striking door surround is of artistic interest. Leap Castle is a landmark building in the area, and in the past, played an important social and historic role in the region.
It has been the site of practically continued occupancy since the sixteenth century with alterations and additions to the castle during each century. To study the developments and phases on construction at Leap Castle and associated structures including the gate lodge and stables is to study the architectural history of Ireland.
The castle lay in ruins until it was bought approximately thirty years ago and it being restored at present. The Darby Family remained at Leap Castle until 1922 when the castle was destroyed by family and the family moved from the estate. Standing strong for over 700 years, this 13 th-century castle has been witness to a tumultuous history.
#Leap castle windows#
Jonathan Darby made extensive alterations to Leap Castle during the eighteenth century to include the flanking castellated bays, Georgian Gothic windows and the sandstone Venetian door surround. Proudly listed as ‘the world’s most haunted castle’ on its website, it is safe to say this majestic manor has quite the name for itself. Having been rebuilt to include a Jacobean house to the north of the castle, of which the diagonal chimneystack is still visible, it became the property of the Darby Family by the mid seventeenth century through John Darby, an English officer, marrying Finnola O'Carroll. Built in the late fifteenth/early sixteenth century, Leap Castle was burnt to prevent Elizabethan forces taking it in 1558. Located in an elevated site with views sweeping down and across the valley to the Fuarawn River, Leap Castle was the principal seat of the O'Carrolls of Ely.
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