Malahide Castle Demesne
Malahide Castle Demesne
The Souter Family, Killiney, Co Dublin /
souterfamily@eircom.net / June 2002
We spent such a lovely day at Malahide Castle that I decided to
include it as one of my 'special places'. The demesne covers 250 acres.
It was the private home of the Talbot family from 1185 until 1973 when
the last Lord Talbot died unexpectedly. He had never married and his sister
(who is now 86 and living in Australia) was forced sell the castle in 1975 because she could not afford the
estate duties. I would have been heartbroken to have to give up something
so beautiful.
Road into Malahide |
From the road the castle is approached along a driveway bordered by enormous stately trees. Alongside
are cricket and rugby grounds. It then winds its way through
an enchanted forest, inhabited by squirrels. The drive is not tarred and I
kept expecting to see a carriage appearing around a corner - you can almost
see and hear them from long ago.
Malahide Castle
 |
We started off with the tour of the castle. The interior is fascinating,
but unfortunately no-one is allowed to photograph or film anything inside.
I was intially worried that John would be bored, but he really enjoyed it and
said he wished we could have stayed inside longer as there was so much to see.
The castle tour ends in the Great Hall where they still hold private
banquets on request. One of the sad stories they tell you is about the
morning of the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, when 14 members of the family
had breakfast together in the hall, and not one of them returned at the
end of the day. Castle Tower
 |
Lunch was quite an experience as we managed to time it just when a bus
load of tourists who could not speak any English arrived. What a performance! After lunch
we went to see the Fry Model Railway (also in the castle grounds.)
It was apparently first started in 1834 and is continually being added to
so it is very impressive. The blurb says that it is 'one of the largest
model railways in existence with both broad and narrow O'Guage trains
with trams, boats and vehicles.' It was magic and Ryan still talks about it.
Model Railway
 |
We were not able to see any of the other attractions this time as Ryan
had spotted the children's playground on the way in and we had promised him he could
play there after we had seen the railway. After that it was time to go home -
and to be honest we were all pretty tired.
Greenhouse
 |
We did not get to see the Botanic Gardens that
cover 22 acres of the grounds. That I'm looking forward to when we visit the castle again.
We also did not go to the Tara's Palace Museum of Childhood which is
something I would enjoy as well. I only read afterwards that it has
three dolls houses that are replicas of 18th century mansions - Leinster
House, Castletown House and Carton House.
Castle Gardens
|
All in all a great day out. If anyone visits Dublin it is definitely
a place to consider visiting. I can't wait to go there again.
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