Caislean Bhaile Atha Troim
The Entrance to Trim Castle, built in the 1170's by Hugh de Lacy and finished in the early 1200's by his son, Walter de Lacy. The original wooded gate is underneath this one and had been burned during an attack by Ruaidrí mac Tairrdelbach Ua Conchobair (Rory O'Connor)
Squishy in his buggy
No Climbing, we were naughty and did a little bit of climbing anyway
entrance to Solarium on the left of the Great Hall
Looking down from the stairs leading to Solarium at the lovely pond scum
Some weird pedestal in the Solarium that was originally a defensive tower, but no one knows what the pedestal was for, and look at that lovely pond scum!
Again the Solarium, which was probably converted from a defensive tower to a place for religious purposes or for the family to hang out in during more peaceful times. No one actually knows. Oh, the pedestal thingy was built a few hundred years later that the original tower. Hmm, maybe it held a statue of Christ and was a sort of chapel?
Stairs leading up from the Solarium back to the main grounds
An Halla Mor
The Great Hall, which was built in the 1300's, you can see the remains of the stone pillars and the arches in the wall used to be windows during one of the peaceful times and at some point someone decided to brick them over.
This is the entrance to the storeroom that was beside the great hall, access from the canal was to this room
Down the steps into the storeroom
Exploring the storeroom
Canal side of the storeroom looking towards stairway leading to the main grounds
A tower along the outer wall on the right of the Great Hall, the part of the tower inside the gate was open to the castle grounds. This tower most likely protected the River Gate which was connected to the outside of the store room
inside the tower
close up of one of the skinny defensive windows.
Geata na hAbhann
An outside view of the storeroom, the canal would've been right below me and this is where the River Gate would've been
Some of the canal still remains along the outer wall
The remains of the canal, now a messy marsh.
More of what's left of the canal
River Boyne
An Balla Cosanta
I don't know what the heck this is, maybe for drainage?
A view of the remaining wall of the Great Hall and across the Boyne the Sheep's Gate
Great Hall, Someone's house and the Yellow Steeple
The kids are rolling down into the ditch that surrounded the keep which was a part of the final defense.
This is the inside view of the main entrance gate
Alex in front of the Solarium, Great Hall with Yellow Steeple and Somebody's house in the background.
a short passageway along side the spiral staircase
A secret staircase
Katie climbing (illegally), on her way to the secret staircase
Alex on the secret staircase
The two little steps sticking out of the wall led up to the remains of a small room that Alex and I had climbed down into, I was sitting on the wall of that room for one of the previous pics
A lovely church that I don't remember the name of
An Bealach Isteach go dti an Daingean
The keep was preserved as opposed to restored, which would've recreated exactly the way it would have been according to the imaginations of some guy. So, since it was preserved, they just made it safe enough to walk around in and put in all these wooden walkways and enough floors so you can't kill yourself exploring. The only way to get into the keep is by guided tour.
View from a window in the keep, you can get a good view of one of the 'C' towers along the Curtaian Wall
this is the chapel inside the keep. These arches were built into the wall; one arch is where the priest would wash his hands, the other arch is where he would wash the 'dishes' so to speak. The light you see behind the arches is where the water would empty out from the wall onto the ground below.
One of the upper floors of the keep. i don't have a pictures of it, but one of the 1st floor rooms was used in the movie Braveheart where Wallace was tortured. The wooden table from the movie is still there and has all the brochures on it. Our tour guide told us that Mel Gibson's sweat was still on it, so don't go crazy ladies. *lol* Also, the Barbican Gate was used in the film for the sack of York, I think it was.
This lovely hole was used as a toilet. Above it a wooden rod, like in a closet would hold clothing. Down where all the fecal matter ended up, a poor fellow would stir up all the poop, releasing fumes that would then go back up the hole and essentially fumigate the clothing that hung on the rod and kill any lice that were living in the clothes.
this beam with a peg in it held wooden defenses that looked like covered balconies on the outside of the upper floors of the castle. In case of fire, the pegs would be removed, the beams pushed out and the 'balcony' would crash to the ground, hopefully crushing and setting afire some of the attackers. Of course, I suppose it could've caught on fire by accident.
Looking down from one of the upper walkways in the keep is the first floor where you can see two of the keep models. The original keep was only two stories, the basement with the kitchen and the first floor. (In Ireland the 1st floor would be the 2nd floor in America, our 1st floor was considered the basement and the kitchen would've been located there, another part of the keep's defense)
This would've been the upper floor of the keep, you can see on the left the ledge in the stone wall. That was where the floor beams would've sat to hold up the wooden floor.
Walkways in the keep
view of the great hall from the keep, you can also see the storeroom and part of the river gate
this is the top of the keep on the battlements, the white thing is this sort of tent set up to keep the weather out. Origianally it was wood, but the preservers felt it would last longer if they used fiberglass.
view from the top of the keep of the Yellow Steeple
view of the river Boyne and the Sheep's Gate
view from the top of the keep, off in the distance is the Hill of Tara
More lovely scenery from the top of the keep with the Hill of Tara in the distance.
view of the yellow steeple, the foot bridge across the river Boyne and somebody's house
There's the wall Alex and I climbed over to get into the 'room' which was part of a tower that led to the secret staircase, I think this was called the Sallyport, what that is, I have no idea.
The tricky spiral staircase. This staircase was slippery and uneven, which was part of the defense system of the keep. An attacker unfamiliar with the staircases could easily slip and break his neck. The direction the staircase spiraled was also part of the defense. A right handed attacker coming up the stairs would always have his sword hitting the central thingy while the right handed defender had a lot more room to manouvere. Left handed people, btw, were considered to be evil, as anything not 'normal' was from the devil. They were most likely killed or outcast.
One of the fireplaces. The original keep had only one fireplace, so was probably pretty darn cold. As the keep was built up there were more fireplaces added, but the fireplaces never really warmed the place up. You'd have to stand right in front of it to feel the heat, same as today.
Inside the keep, you can see the ledge where the floor beams would've rested
In the chapel, i think
where the heck is the car?
Outer wall near where the River Gate would've been
A bridge over the river Boyne from the foot bridge
Alex and Sue pushing Squishy in his buggy by the Great Hall with the keep in the background
Squishy in his little bubble buggy, which was very handy in keeping him protected from the chilly wind and the rain. He loved to kick it with his feet and was always undoing the plastic clasp on the sides that kept it from blowing off.
The Sheep's Gate was one of the gates for the original town of Trim
The Yellow Steeple
What's left of the wall that surrounded the town of Trim
Yellow Steeple
Inside Yellow Steeple. There wasn't really an inside, the tower was open due to an accidental fire hundreds of years ago
The doorway, was actually part of a staircase that would've led onto one of the floors of the tower
Geata an Bharbacain
The Barbican Gate
Barbican Gate
This is the view from the inside wall looking out the Barbican Gate. There would've been a wooden draw-bridge and underneath the arches there would've been the moat
Here's a view of the outside of the Barbican Gate, I would've been under water in the slimy, icky moat
Here's a side view of the Curtaian Wall with the Trim Castle Hotel across the street. The castle is btw, right in the modern town of Trim
The inside of the Barbican Gate
I originally thought that this was the poop chute, where all the poop was collected and the poor shit stirrer had to hang out every night to make sure his masters clothes were lice free. Another job of this poor fellow was to smear the shit on the walls around the poop chute. The darker the shit, the richer the diet, it was sort of a status thing. However, this is not what I thought it was. Since this is the outer wall this 'tunnel' was most likely for other waste water and disposal as it would've been under the water of the moat.
