Dardistown Castle, Medieval castle in County Meath, Ireland

Dardistown Castle is a four-storey tower house near Julianstown in County Meath, its square tower about 44 feet wide and 50 feet high with a turret at each corner. Three turrets hold vaulted ground-floor rooms, while the fourth contains an anti-clockwise spiral staircase leading to a parapet walk. A Victorian residential frontage was added in 1860.

John Cornwalsh built the fortress in 1465 during a period when such strongholds were being established across Ireland. The structure saw different phases of occupation and change over the following centuries.

The Talbots acquired Dardistown around 1600 through a marriage link to Jenet Sarsfield, and Richard Talbot held the house when the 1641 Battle of Julianstown was fought on its front lawn. The family's association with the estate is remembered in local accounts of that battle.

The castle is open to the public two days a week for most of the year, and the upper floors of the tower can be rented. Visitors climb the anti-clockwise spiral staircase in the fourth turret to reach the parapet walk, so expect stairs between floors.

One staircase in a corner turret spirals counter-clockwise, contrary to what you would expect in fortifications of this era. This unusual design feature is something most visitors walk past without noticing.