Built around 1200, Swords Castle’s curtain walls form an irregular polygon enclosing roughly one and a third acres of history. The main entrance through the south wall features a barrel-vaulted archway that leads visitors into a complex of buildings arranged along the eastern and western sides of the courtyard.

The eastern range houses some of the castle’s most significant structures, including a chapel with an adjoining three-storey residential tower. The tower’s ground floor is vaulted, whilst its second floor features a distinctive double-light window with trefoil heads and a transom set into the southern wall. Archaeological excavations in the 1970s uncovered fourteenth-century tiles within the chapel, and more medieval tile pavements were discovered in what’s believed to have been an oratory in the southeast corner. The so-called ‘Great Hall’ sits along the eastern curtain wall, accompanied by a three-storey tower with vaulted ground floor and a stairwell tucked into its northeastern angle. The first floor is illuminated by an impressive window crafted with red sandstone moulding and tracery.

The castle’s defensive features are equally noteworthy, with battlemented curtain walls complete with parapet walks and towers positioned strategically in the eastern, northern and southwestern sections. The northern tower rises three storeys high with sandstone windows and a stairwell in its southwestern angle, whilst the southwestern tower extends beyond the curtain wall’s line and features a turret perched on a stepped squinch arch with corbels. Recent archaeological work has revealed fascinating insights into the castle’s past; excavations in 1993 uncovered a rock-cut ditch approximately 2.2 metres from the wall’s base, likely marking the outer castle moat’s original position. More intriguingly, 2014 excavations within the gatehouse revealed burials that appear to predate its construction. Following extensive restoration work based on David Newman Johnson’s designs since the mid-1990s, the chapel has recently reopened to visitors, allowing modern audiences to experience this remarkable piece of Dublin’s medieval heritage.