When Captain Robert Parke acquired this 3,000-acre estate in 1628, originally granted to Sir William Irwin two years earlier, he found an O’Rourke tower house that had stood on the site for generations. Rather than simply occupying the existing structure, Parke dismantled the tower but cleverly retained and heightened the original bawn walls, those defensive perimeter walls that once protected the tower. He then constructed an elegant three-storey manor house along the eastern wall, incorporating both the original gatehouse and the northeastern corner tower into his new design.

The resulting structure is a unique blend of defensive and domestic architecture. Parke’s house measures 11 metres north to south and 5.4 metres east to west internally, with the ground floor featuring simple windows and five gun-loops in the corner tower; a reminder that even in the 1620s, defence was still a consideration. A spiral staircase at the southwest corner connects all three floors, with the first floor boasting mullioned and transomed windows on the west side, a fireplace in the north wall, and access to both the corner tower and the room above the gateway. The second floor follows a similar layout but curiously lacks a fireplace in the main section. You can still spot the original crenellations of the medieval bawn embedded in the fabric of the eastern wall, a ghostly outline of the fortress that once stood here.

Despite surviving the turbulent wars of the mid-17th century, Parke’s Castle was likely abandoned by 1700, with the Parke family church standing about 200 metres to the north as a reminder of their presence. Between 1971 and 1975, archaeological excavations revealed more about the castle’s history, and careful restoration work has transformed it into a National Monument that welcomes visitors from April to October. The castle offers a remarkable window into how English settlers adapted and reimagined Irish fortifications during the Plantation era, creating hybrid structures that served both as comfortable homes and defensive strongholds.