Ok, imagine this:
You have a puppy, and you need to take him out for a walk. So you call your buddy, grab a ball, and head for the park with with Paddy (that’s what you call your puppy). You get to the park and meet up with your friend and the first thing you have to decide is…
Do we wanna play with Paddy inside or outside of the castle today?
When I went to Roscommon Castle, there were 2 dudes right inside playing with a dog, and outside there were people just strolling around the pond. But what blew me away is the fact that they go to the park like it’s nothing, but there’s a castle there! I’m sure the novelty wears of if you live there, but I could hardly fathom going to the park for a walk around the old castle. It just sounds like a story!! But there it was, right in front of me.
Roscommon Castle is ruins now, and is mostly just walls, so the big open grassy area is ideal for a picnic or playing with Paddy. I often wonder about castle ruins: What were they like before they were ruins? Who lived there? How did it come to ruin? Those sorts of things. I did a bit of reading on Roscommon Castle, and it seems it has a bit of a checkered past.
It was built in 1269 and changed hands frequently until 1652 when it was partially blown up, and then ultimately burned down in 1690. If you wanna read about it a bit more, here’s the Wikipedia page, and here’s a neat site called Look Around Ireland that has a 360 view of the inside of Roscommon.
Anyway, can you even imagine burning down a castle?! It seems so ridiculous to destroy such a fantastic structure, but that was how things were then. It’s just such a shame that castles should come to ruin simply because they were built in a rough period of time. Can you imagine building a castle today though?! It’s probably a bit of a daft thought, but still it’s interesting! Anyway, I suppose that it’s all a part of the beauty of a castle – the mystery of it’s past, the time period in which it was built, and the people it was meant to protect. Maybe it’s these thoughts and my vivid imagination that draws me to these old sites over and over. Whatever it is, Roscommon is definitely worth a visit, even if only to experience the humble modern presence of this old stronghold. If you’d like to see my experience there, you should check out some of my photos. :)
