Roscommon Castle

A large quadrangular Norman castle built in 1269 by the justiciar Robert de Ufford, with massive D-shaped corner towers and a twin-towered gatehouse. Contested for centuries between English forces and the O'Conor kings of Connacht, it changed hands repeatedly before being remodelled with mullioned windows in the sixteenth century. The roofless walls now stand in a public green on the edge of the town. Its scale and symmetry make it one of the more imposing surviving examples of an Anglo-Norman keepless castle.