Birr Castle

So far, out of all the castles we’ve seen – this is the most unique one yet.   It’s more than a medieval castle, museum and grounds, it’s a home.  It’s been a working, living, home to the Parson family for almost 400 years.  The current Earl of Rosse still lives here with his family.  It’s very evident they have worked hard to preserve their heritage and estate.  This is a very interesting family with lots of interests.  They’ve turned their home into a money-making estate and yet kept their private lives. private.  They do open their castle/home to tours, but we did not take one (this time). 

The castle and grounds are set up as an attraction you can walk around and enjoy, which we did!  (Be sure to check out the photo album below for all the photos) The grounds are great, huge park-like areas.  Apparently, one of the ancestors was into collecting trees everywhere he went so there are many different varieties- some very tall ones too.

See Tom?

There is a Science center, filled with photos and exhibits in Astronomy, engineering, photography and botany.  Which pretty much sums up the family’s history and varied interests over the years.  Also on display in the courtyard is the “first high-performance steam turbine” which was invented by a son of the 3^rd Earl Charles Parson.

From science to children’s play area.  A rather unexpected surprise, not at all what I anticipated seeing at a castle.  There is a touch of whimsy throughout the area with a number of fun structures to spark a child’s imagination and burn off some energy. (They say the tree house is Irelands’ largest) I watched a video about this castle before we left and I remember the current Earl has many grand kids, perhaps this really was all built for them to enjoy, but the locals seem to treat it as a park.

Anyway, within the 50 acres estate, there is a walled garden, green house, river garden, pavilion, lake, bridges, waterfalls and of-course the Great Telescope.  This is not just any telescope- it was built in the 1840’s by the 3^rd Earl himself and was the largest in the world for over 70 years.  This is massive and very impressive for a home-made telescope.  I would have loved to have seen it in use, but don’t think they use it anymore.   He even put in his own N-S alignment meridian stones to easily plot the stars.  With this telescope, the Earl discovered “the spiral nature of certain nebulae – leading to their identification as galaxies”.

I’m hoping to return before the end of summer – now that I know more about them, I’d love to see how they live inside their castle because I love the outside. 

PHOTO ALBUM