Dublin, Ireland - Dublin Castle - August 2025

As part of our walking tour mentioned in the last post, we went through the grounds of Dublin Castle. It started sprinkling on us a bit as we were discussing the history, but it made for some cool skies in the photos.

The Dublin Castle was originally built on King John's orders (yes, the thumb-sucking lion from the cartoon Robin Hood king). It was built after the Norman invasion sometime in the early 1200s, intended to be a stronghold against invasion. (Dublin had been attacked several times, first by Vikings, and then by Normans - so this was probably a good move.) Anyway, it burnt in the 1600s, so most of what people see was rebuilt as a Georgian palace. Several of the areas featured in these photos, however, is from the original medieval fortress.

I'm sort of selective with my castles; I really only want to tour a castle if it looks like it did originally, or is in ruins. This is sort of a bougey castle, so we didn't tour the inside.

Even though the glass, pane, etc. aren't original, the windows put into medieval castles are almost always gorgeous.