Haynestown Castle is believed to date from the 16th century and is situated about six kilometres south of the town of Dundalk. It is a three storey tower house, with a square plan, but what makes it quite striking is the four massive circular corner turrets. The castle had until recently been covered in ivy and its features were not visible however thankfully this has been stripped back. A blocked up doorway on the ground floor of the west wall would have been the towers main entrance. The castle forms part of two boundary walls of a Church of Ireland church named St Paul’s, this was built in 1803 and was originally dedicated to St Nicholas. Very little of the actual history of the castle is unknown and Lewis’ Topographical Dictionary of Ireland from 1837 makes no mention of the castle in its entry for Haynestown (then Heynstown or Hainstown) which would lead me to believe the castle was already in a poor state and unoccupied by that time.

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