Lea Castle: the story so far

Abstract

You could almost be forgiven for not knowing about Lea Castle: it is not located off an ‘important’ modern road, it is not set in an urban environment and it is not open to the public. Lea is possibly one of Ireland’s most overlooked Anglo-Norman castle-complexes. Yet, it is of national importance and is of immense value in terms of appreciating our Anglo-Norman heritage. One of the main problems - outside of being very overgrown and neglected - is that little research has been completed on the castle. The limited work that has been achieved reaches various unsatisfactory conclusions (McNeill 1997, Sweetman 1999, O’Conor 1999). There is no consensus in the opinions of these various scholars in relation to its architecture, chronology or patronage therefore this paper represents the first examination of the story of Lea.