The final construction of Swords Castle was the work of many hands and many centuries too.

Having a siting near a powerful, navigable river recommended Swords immediately to the conquering Norman’s in 1170 ad. Rivers provide vital water, allow for rapid travel over the waterways of that day and provided these new continental invaders with immediate access to the open sea at the Malahide estuary. Sea travel, in a territory still covered by thick forest, was the most efficient means of travel the Swords Castle was built not so much for defence or sieges either, but for control of the local area and native population.

Nevertheless, as this 1790 print confirms with fishermen depicted near the Constable’s Tower(1400s). The castle once boasted a surrounding moat, fed directly from the river Ward. Tight lines to all our fishermen!