Gormanston Castle
Gormanston Castle is situated near Drogheda about 30 km north of Dublin and close to the border of County Meath and County Dublin.
Gormanston Castle is an impressive castellated building with a quadrangular plan with a tower at each corner except the north west corner. The main building is three storeys. The central part of the frontage is flanked by two narrow castellated towers on either side of the entrance. The castle grounds were developed in the 1950s with the building of a boys' secondary school adjacent to the castle.
Gormanston Castle was the seat of the Preston family (the Viscount Gormanston) from the 14th century until it was sold to the Franciscan Order of Friars in the late 1940s. The castle now standing was built on the site of an earlier castle around 1786 by the Prestons.
The Franciscans established a boarding school for boys on the grounds in 1955, known as Gormanston College. Today, Gormanston College is a co-educational day school and boarding school, run by the Franciscan Province of Ireland.
Legends
According to tradition, the foxes of County Meath gather around the castle when the head of the Preston family is about to die.