Qualla: Castletroy

Castletroy: Introduction

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Seabhcan, Public domain. There is a verse in Hogan's Lays and Legends of Thomond that calls Castletroy 'grey Castletroy by war, tide and time batter'd' and likens its ruined walls to an old chief 'with his armour all shatter'd.' The chief in question is the Black Castle, a thirteenth-century tower house on the south bank of the River Shannon that Cromwell's general Henry Ireton reduced to a stump in 1651. Around it grew - very slowly, over centuries - the modern suburb of Castletroy, a name that means 'castle of the bend' or possibly 'castle of the O'Turrain.' In the twentieth century it was open country with two villages. Then in the 1970s the University of Limerick opened on the old Plassey estate next door, and Castletroy became Limerick's leafy studentville, with motorways, shopping centres, and a small Jewish graveyard that is one of the quieter stories on the Shannon.

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Image: Seabhcan | Public domain

Castletroy: The Black Castle

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David Hawgood, CC BY-SA 2.0. A member of the O'Brien family built the original tower in the thirteenth century, during the reign of King Henry III of England, on a strategic spit of the Shannon's south bank about two kilometres east of where the University of Limerick now stands. The MacKeoghs, a local Gaeli...

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Image: David Hawgood | CC BY-SA 2.0

Castletroy: Before the Castle

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David Hawgood, CC BY-SA 2.0. The name Castletroy may actually be older than the castle. Local toponymy suggests the area was once used by the O'Turrain clan, who used a sheltered cove of the Shannon as a safe harbour for boats navigating the upper estuary. The clan was gone by the time the Black Castle went ...

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Image: David Hawgood | CC BY-SA 2.0

Castletroy: From Farmland to Suburb

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit P L Chadwick, CC BY-SA 2.0. For most of the twentieth century Castletroy was farmland with the small villages of Annacotty and Monaleen attached. Then came the institutional decision that transformed the area: in the 1970s the new University of Limerick took over the old Plassey House estate next door, on t...

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Image: P L Chadwick | CC BY-SA 2.0

Castletroy: The Jewish Graveyard

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David Hawgood, CC BY-SA 2.0. On a quiet plot in Castletroy stands one of the more poignant heritage sites in the area: a small Jewish graveyard, dating from the late nineteenth century, when Limerick was home to a few hundred Jewish residents, mostly recent immigrants from Lithuania. The Limerick Jewish comm...

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Image: David Hawgood | CC BY-SA 2.0

Castletroy: What Remains

Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David Hawgood, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Black Castle is open ground to anyone who wants to walk down to the Shannon and look. It sits in a small field on the river's south bank, broken stones and earthworks where a tower used to be. Sport now uses the surrounding land - Shannon Rugby Club plays on what was once the...

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Image: David Hawgood | CC BY-SA 2.0