Killeen Castle, Dunsany

As we approach the castle we are faced by four tall battlemented towers with five storeys of slit openings linking the curtain walls of the building.

We enter by a steep wooden stairway, and find ourselves, having passed through the considerable thickness of the wall from the narrow doorway, into the Great Hall on the first floor.

[1] The castle fell into disrepair in the late 17th century, was leased out, and was not restored until around 1779, when parts of the demesne were landscaped and some of the estate features were added.

[citation needed] The 12th Earl of Fingall (1896–1984), the last to hold the earldom, sold Killeen Castle and its remaining estate in 1951, to Sir Victor Sassoon.

[citation needed] Sassoon died in 1961 and his heirs sold the estate on in 1963, to French art dealer and major racehorse owner, Daniel Wildenstein.

[citation needed] In 1978, the castle and estate were sold to advertiser Basil Brindley, who continued the stud farm operation.

In 1989, a new development plan was proposed, and later revised, with multiple applications for permission, including the conversion of the castle into a high-end hotel, the installation of a championship standard golf course and the construction of more than one hundred units of luxury housing on the estate.

With successive modifications and discussions, plans were approved, with conditions to protect parts of the demesne landscape, and estate features, including a holy well.

[6] However, in early 2009, Starwood withdrew from the project after plans were scaled down by developers Snowbury following a downturn in the tourism and leisure industry.

[10] The demesne contains the castle itself, a substantial stable yard, a church (sometimes, incorrectly, called "Killeen Abbey"), a holy well (the "Lady Well"), a pond, a walled garden and other features.