Castleacre's House Of The Month - The Castle at Ballybrittan
Castleacre’s House Of The Month – The Castle at Ballybrittan
- 2 July 2026
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- Posted by: Castleacre
Castleacre specialises in protecting period properties, heritage houses, and protected structures. We know just how much hard work and time the owners invest in looking after these buildings, breathing life into them and helping them remain integral to Ireland’s cultural and community history.
Each month, we focus on the story behind one of these beautiful character homes. We spoke to the owner of the Castle at Ballybrittan who has been delving into its 600 year old history.
Crown, Cromwell, and Quakers: 600 Years of a Tumultuous Anglo – Irish History in One Castle
The story of the Castle at Ballybrittan is, according to its current owner, an extraordinary ‘micro history of Ireland’. Looking at the Castle’s picturesque and peaceful presence today – a romantic 15th century tower attached to an elegant 18th century Queen Anne farmhouse – it is hard to imagine the political and religious turmoil that has coloured its 600 years.
The house, which does to some extent, owe its existence to two English monarchs, Elizabeth I and Charles II, and a powerful female line was, until relatively recently, the home of the late Dublin barrister, Jeremiah Healy who had been a Senior Councillor in the ‘Moriarty Inquiry’ – a notorious investigation into political corruption.
Outside Dublin and away from the public spotlight, Healy and his wife, Rosemarie, had painstakingly restored the interior of the Castle at Ballybrittan after buying it in the 1990s. Interested in history, architecture and art, the Healys had put incredible heart into their home, and the refurbished interiors were sensitively designed to reflect the building’s long history, carefully complementing earlier architectural features.
The current owner says:
‘I had been lucky enough to visit the Castle at Ballybrittan once and I knew the Healy’s had carried out an incredible restoration of the interior. Two years after Mr Healy had passed away, I saw the house for sale in a newspaper. I had no real link to the area; I’m originally from the West of Ireland, but I really admired the house and everything the Healys had done to revive it. I thought it had been undervalued, so I put in an offer. The more I saw it and thought about it, the more I wanted it, and eventually I put in the highest bid.’
Since taking over the house and garden, the current owner has become increasingly fascinated by its past. The early history of the tower, which was part of a larger castle, is less well documented than the house. Aside from its original purpose as a fortification and vantage point (before it was partially destroyed by the Jacobie army in 1691) the tower has also been used as a dairy and kitchen, while some of the stone has been repurposed in the piggery and walled garden.
According to records, the land surrounding the main site was gifted to Sir Henry Warren by the English Crown under Queen Elizabeth I in the late 16th century. Just over two centuries later, it was confiscated by Oliver Cromwell’s government because of the family’s Royalist sympathies. During Charles II’s exile, he had stayed with close relations of the Warren family for one month and met and liked Mary Warren of Ballybrittan. When Charles was restored to the English throne in 1660, he promptly returned the Castle at Ballybrittan and its land to the Warren family, as a reward for their loyalty.
The current owner says,
‘I enjoy history, particularly economic history, so it has been very interesting to learn more about the house. I was anticipating the Anglo-Irish connection, but not necessarily a direct connection with the English throne and civil war. It is also surprising that the Castle has largely passed through the female line. The house has had both prominent Catholic and Protestant owners and tenants, depending on the most convenient religion of the day and, during virtually the entirety of the 17th century, it was tenanted by Quaker families who did much of the remodelling in the house that stands today.’
Since taking on the Castle, the new owner’s interest in Ireland’s history has prompted him to develop a Heritage app that links GPS to important historical sites across the country. Although he has no plan to change the interior of the Castle at Ballybrittan, he has an ambition to revive the walled garden, using it as an interactive timeline with different styles to reflect the transition between historical periods and the different families who have lived at the Castle.
‘We want to restore the garden and open it during heritage week because it is a way of bringing Ballybrittan’s history to life and connecting it to the local community and schools. So many people have a connection to the house and in fact descendants of the artist J. Smythe, who painted an impression of the facade in the 19th century, are coming back to the house to visit it soon.’
