Johnstown Castle in Wexford

I’m just back from a week staying in a friend’s lovely beach house in Rosslare. One of the days we went to visit nearby Johnstown Castle which after many years has opened to the public.

I love Castles and this one is certainly well worth a visit, it dates back more than 800 years and the original castle was built by the Esmonde family who were rewarded for their part in the Norman Invasion of Ireland in 1169. However during the time of Oliver Cromwell in 1640’s the castle and lands were confiscated and the Esmonde family were forced to leave Wexford and the place they loved.

The castle and estate changed hands a few times and in 1692 became the home of the Grogan Family. They developed the Castle, the gardens and the land. The ornamental gardens, lakes and grounds were designed by Daniel Robertson, who also designed the garden terraces at Powerscourt House in Wicklow. The family remained living there until the 1940’s when it was gifted to the Irish nation in 1940’s and taken over by the Department of Agriculture, originally to be used as an institute with them maintaining the large grounds.  The castle is now under the wing of Irish Heritage Trust and is being restored.

We went on the organised tour and our guide Eileen told us off the tragedies and triumphs of the great families who lived there over the centuries as we walked around the rooms and we even got to see the kitchen and the underground servant’s tunnel. The gardens and walled garden and lakes are stunning with peacocks and peahens walking around, one with their chicks also saw a beautiful family of swans and five growing cygnets on the lake. There is much to see as there is also a big exhibition of Farm equipment with tractors, machinery and tools, as well as farmhouse kitchens. There is also a section about the Irish famine, which includes a simple cottage and how the failure of the potato crop had such dire consequences in Ireland. On top it all is a great visitor’s centre and The Peacock Café which serves really good toasted sandwiches, snacks and coffee and cakes. Tours of the castle must be booked as numbers are limited.

The Walled Garden and swans on the Lake in Johnstown Castle

It is always a joy for me to be in Greystones, the beautiful Wicklow seaside town where I spent so much of my childhood and which had so much influence in my becoming a writer.

When Trish Hennessy and Sarah Webb of the local bookshop Halfway Up the Stairs asked me about doing a very different event based around my book Safe Harbour which would involve a walk with young readers to see and talk about some of the important locations in the book  I was intrigued and perhaps a  little nervous. They wanted me  bring people to see the place that Sophie and Hugh discover when they are evacuated during World War II from London to Ireland and to Greystones.

When Sophie and Hugh’s  house is bombed and their mother is badly  injured during the London Blitz they are evacuated to Greystones to live with their strict and regimented grandfather, who lives in a big, old house overlooking the sea. They have never seen or even heard about him or spoken to him so it is a big shock and a change to be sent to someone who they quickly sense doesn’t really want them.

The sun shone and the beaches were busy as we set off on our walk. It was wonderful to be able to show my readers and their parents the places Sophie and Hugh came to love and know and were important parts of the book and to even get to see the old air raid siren over the garage which helped give me the idea for the book…  Afterwards we went back to the shop to sign books and chat.

The Greystones Book Walk was fully booked out but thanks to the lovely readers who still came along to join us in the bookshop afterwards.

 Huge thanks to Sarah, who came with us and Trish for organising such a lovely book event