Williamstown Castle

 NAME                        Williamstown Castle/Blackrock College


AREA LOCATION     Approached by Vavasour Avenue now known as Williamstown Avenue.

 
MAP LOCATION       OSI maps of 1838-1845 and 1898-1913 place it in the townland of
                                     Williamstown and it is annotated as Williamstown Castle and 
                                     University Civil Service College respectively. 
                                 

GENERAL                  Described as on 4 acres enclosed within a stone wall in 1821.  Now
​integrated into Blackrock College.  Its gatelodge was designed as a castle in miniature and is no
​longer extant.      
                                          ​
YEAR BUILT              circa 1752         
 

ARCHITECT               Unknown

SOURCES                  Thom’s directories, OSI maps, Griffith's Valuation, NAI Census & Wills
                                    contemporaneous newspapers, Griffith's Valuation and Registry of Deeds.
  
OCCUPANTS
1780                           Land owned by Lord Fitzwilliam and leased to Councillor William Vavasour
1807                           Lyndon Bolton
1809                           Valentine O’Connor
1812                           James Purcell
1816                           Robert Lanagan
1825                           Samuel Aiken, Attorney
1827 - 1829               Richard Sadlier
1837                           J Boyd
1839 - 1842               Thomas O’Mara of Linasikea
1844                           Thomas Reville/Francis B Haly
1849 - 1857               Stephen Malyn (Melyn)
1858 - 1874               George Andrews
1874                           Blackrock College
         
STAFF
1849                           John Archbold - Gatekeeper
1867 - 1869               Mr Carroll - Gardener
      
CURRENT                  Extant and integrated into Blackrock College    
STATUS                     

CONTRIBUTOR       ©​ June Bow & Karen Poff
DATE                          May 2018