Lismore

Lismore is a corruption of the Irish Lios Mor or Big Fort.  The place grew to eminence through the monastery founded by Mo-Chuda of Rahan (St. Carthage) in 636, just a few years before his death in 638.  Eminent European figures studied at it's celebrated school and despite being sacked many times by the Vikings it retained it's huge influence in the kingdom of the Deise ( an ancient Irish anme for the area).  It was a stronghold of the anchorite movement in the 8^th and 9^th centuries and also was prominent in the 12^th century church reforms.  As one of the leading monasteries in Munster it became a See for a dioceses of the Deise during this period.

Henry II visited Lismore in 1171 and chose a site for a castle.  Ray le Gros and his Anglo-Normans ransacked the town two years later and Henry's castle site was built upon by Prince John in 1185.  These events marked a decline in influence for monastic Lismore.  In 1363 the diocese was untied with that of Waterford, although it retained it's cathedral until the Reformation.  The castle passed to Sir Walter Raleigh in 1589 and Raleigh sold it to Richard Boyle, Earl of Cork in 1602.  He immediately set about fashioning the countryside round Lismore in the English way, with stocked deer parks, fruit orchards, fish ponds and other features of the English lordly manor estate.  Robert Boyle, his son, (1627 - 91) was the celebrated chemist and formulator of Boyles's law.  In 1753 the castle passed to the 4^th Duke of Devonshire on his marriage to Lady Charlotte and the present castle is still owned by the Devonshires.

Lismore Castle & Gardens.

The current imposing structure (above), which towers over the Blackwater, was built by the 6^th Duke of Devonshire in the middle of the 19^th century.  Work was directed by Joseph Paxton, the architect of Crystal Palace in London, who incorporated parts of the earlier castle and monastic remains.  During the work, the Lismore Crozier (now in the National Museum in Dublin) was discovered concealed in a wall crevise together with the Book of Lismore.  This book, compiled in the 15^th century for MacCarthy Riabhach and his wife, Catherine Fitzgerald, chronicles the lives of Irish saints and contains much secular commentary.  Lismore castle is not open to the public.

The gardens, which are open to the public, consist of walled and woodland gardens on tow levels.  The lower level is a spring garden, where camellias, rhododendrons and magnolias flourish among many other colourful shrubs.  The natural alluvial soil of the garden was removed and peat was imported from the Knockmealdowns to give the soil its acid content.  This allowed these beautiful specimen trees and shrubs to flourish.  Here is also a lovely Yew Walk where, it is said, Spenser wrote part of his Faerie Queene.  The Riding House, which connects the upper and lower gardens, was built in 1631 and the connecting wall between it and the castle a year later.

The more formal upper garden is one of the few examples of an Elizabethan layout in Ireland.  The gardens are open from the end of April to mid-September, 13.45 - 16.45 daily.  These dates may vary slightly.  Admission charge.  Tel : 058-54424

Lismore was substantially reconstructed during the early 1800's, with the houses on New Street being built in 18020k, those on the elegant Mall around 1832, with the West Street buildings dating from the 1850's.  It has now been designated a Heritage Town and it's fine buildings and beautiful location draw many visitors each year.

In the centre of Lismore is a monument erected in 1872 in memory of Archdeacon Ambrose Power, a much loved local philanthropist.