History of Blarney Castle

style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"" lang="EN-US">The castle was besieged during the Irish Confederate Wars and was seized in 1646 by Parliamentarian forces under Lord Broghill. However after the Restoration the castle was restored to DonoughMacCarty, who was made 1st Earl of Clancarty.

During the Williamite War in Ireland in the 1690s, the then 4th Earl of Clancarty (also named Donough MacCarty) was captured and his lands (including Blarney Castle) were confiscated by the Williamites.

The castle was sold and changed hands a number of times before being purchased in the early 1700s by Sir James St. John Jefferyes, then Governor of Cork City.

Members of the Jefferyes family would later build a mansion near the keep. This house was destroyed by fire however, and in 1874 a replacement baronial mansion—known as Blarney House—was built overlooking the nearby lake.

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