Discover Lismore

A monastery town that a castle moved in on

The town is older than the castle by five centuries. Carthage came in 636 and his monastery grew into a centre of learning; the inscribed slabs found in the cathedral spire in 1827 carry prayers for its abbots and bishops of the ninth and tenth centuries. The castle followed in 1185 to guard the river crossing, passed through Walter Raleigh to Richard Boyle, the 1st Earl of Cork, and came by marriage to the Cavendish family, the Dukes of Devonshire, who rebuilt it as the turreted house you see from the bridge.

What is open is the outside of all that. The gardens and gallery run from mid-March to late October, the Heritage Centre in the old courthouse shows the rooms in virtual reality, and the cathedral on the North Mall is open daily for nothing. Main Street, West Street and the two Malls are the whole town; Ferry Lane takes you down to the river.