Castle, Collinstown, Co. Dublin
In the quiet countryside between Skerries and Lusk in County Dublin, a laneway leads to what locals once knew as the 'Lane field', where the remnants of Collinstown Castle have long since vanished from sight.
Castle, Collinstown, Co. Dublin
Though Duncan’s 1821 map marks this spot as a ‘Castle in ruins’, today’s visitors will find only a low-lying field under cultivation, with no visible traces of the medieval structure that once stood here. The castle’s exact appearance and history remain largely unknown, though its presence on early 19th-century maps confirms it was still recognisable as a ruin two centuries ago.
Local memory offers tantalising glimpses of what once was. The current landowner’s grandmother still spoke of the castle in the Lane field, keeping alive an oral tradition that stretches back generations. When the present house was built in the early 1800s, its builders may have been practical about their materials; the stables and walls surrounding the property incorporate unusually large stones that could well have been salvaged from the castle’s ruins. This kind of stone recycling was common practice in rural Ireland, where good building material was too valuable to waste.
Today, Collinstown Castle exists more in memory and map references than in physical reality. The field where it stood continues its agricultural purpose, ploughed and planted season after season, whilst the stones that may once have formed its walls now serve more modest purposes in nearby farm buildings. It’s a reminder that not all of Ireland’s castles survive as romantic ruins; some simply fade back into the landscape, leaving only place names and local stories as evidence they ever existed at all.