Built by the Ussher family in 1560, Donnybrook Castle served as a fortified house for nearly two centuries before its demolition in 1759. An 18th-century drawing preserved from before its destruction reveals an impressive long, rectangular building that stretched two storeys high, complete with a circular turret and distinctive double-light, round-headed windows that would have caught the light across the Dublin countryside.

The site appears on the 1837 Ordnance Survey 6-inch map, though by then the castle was long gone, replaced eventually by the Convent of Sisters of Charity. Archaeological work in 1995 brought some of the area’s older history back to light when excavations near the convent uncovered a gully measuring 1.2 metres wide and 0.3 metres deep. This feature formed part of what archaeologists identified as a small, circular enclosure, likely dating to the late medieval period; evidence of occupation on this spot that predates even the Usshers’ grand residence.

Today, visitors to the area would find it hard to imagine the fortified house that once commanded this position, or the earlier medieval settlement that preceded it. Yet beneath the modern streetscape and the convent grounds, traces of these past lives remain, offering glimpses into Donnybrook’s evolution from medieval enclosure to Elizabethan stronghold to religious institution.