The Castle Next Door
‘’The Castle Next Door’’
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There’s a castle nest door to our site that’s being gradually restored to its former glory. When I first set eyes on it in 1991 as I got off the 41 bus in Swords village I was a recent graduate, suited and booted and hoping some kind person would direct me to the campus for my interview [in the end the person I asked for directions went one better than giving them to me – he gave me a lift in his car to the gates of the site. I later discovered he worked there too himself!].
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Back then the castle had only just been purchased by Dublin County Council, now Fingal County Council, with a view to the long-term restoration of the thirteenth century structure which was originally built as the manorial residence of the first Anglo-Norman Archbishop of Dublin, John Comyn. The following centuries would see the castle expanded then abandoned before being sold into private hands. At one point in the last century the grounds were even being used as an orchard by a local shopkeeper.
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The first part of the castle to be substantially restored was the Constable’s Tower, which was worked on between 1996 and 1998. Later the chapel was restored and then the shops and businesses that had been built in front of other parts of the structure as it circled around to North Street were knocked down, re-exposing the 305 meter perimeter wall; it was a bit like excavating for hidden architectural gems only in a sideways direction rather than the customary downwards!
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I’ve always had a fascination with castles, dating back to childhood when a trip to see the ruins of a medieval structure was my idea of a fun day out; my brothers and sisters didn’t feel the same way! The towers and turrets, the battlements and courtyards. Architectural masterpieces and all built with stone. I’d stand within the walls and summon up images of brave knights on horseback.
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My work on campus takes me out around the site and I remember vividly a morning some years ago when I was out and about. I had to walk in a south-easterly direction along by the perimeter fence that separates the site from the Swords Town Park which contains the back of the castle. It was a night shift in summer and daylight was just breaking and at a particular point on my route I saw the outline of the castle through the fence and trees. I stood and looked at it and got lost in time and thoughts. If I’d been a painter I might have been tempted to paint the wonderful sight, but being a writer I was content to store up the image for future use in an article – this one!
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Some of what was going through my head that morning was how similar the castle and its grounds are to the site, even though they are from centuries apart. The castle made the best use of stone and wood to build its structures. Our site makes the best use of modern building materials, plastics and metals and modern-day bricks. The castle was enclosed by its perimeter walls to keep people out and in the same way our campus needs to be enclosed for safety and security reasons. The castle would have been a busy place in its heyday, just as our site is now.
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Juxtaposing the past and the present that morning was possibly no more than a mind tired from the night shift allowing its imagination run wild. Past and present became intertwined just as day and night were unravelling from each other. Before I snapped out of the reverie I made a further association between past and present. Castles and medieval times are often associated with alchemy and we certainly perform alchemy of sorts on our campus, taking raw materials and solvents and converting them with our skills and knowledge into molecules that manage and cure peoples’ illnesses.