Drimnagh Castle, Norman castle in South Dublin, Ireland

Drimnagh Castle is a fortress with thick stone walls, a great hall, a 17th-century fireplace, and a tall battlement tower offering lookout points. The structure stands surrounded by a water-filled moat fed by the Camac River.

Sir Hugh de Bernival is the earliest recorded owner, named in state papers of 1216; his family, later called Barnewall, held the site for centuries. They built a fortification in the mid-13th century, while the surviving great hall and attached tower date to the early 15th century. By the mid-19th century the castle belonged to the Marquess of Lansdowne, and in the early 1900s dairy man Joseph Hatch bought and restored it. It lay ruined by the mid-1980s until a hand-worked restoration from 1986 reopened it in 1991.

The formal garden follows a 17th-century layout and grows medicinal and culinary herbs using traditional methods from medieval times. You can observe how these plants were tended and the role they played in daily life.

The castle is open to the public by guided tour; tours can be booked in advance for individuals or groups, and the site is also hired for weddings and other events. Dry stone walling courses are run there. The Camac tributary feeds the moat, so the grounds can be damp underfoot.

This is the only castle in Ireland that is completely surrounded by a water-filled moat. The moat is fed by the nearby Camac River and creates a distinctive defensive barrier around the entire structure.