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CASTLETROY

CO. LIMERICK · IE

Castletroy
Caladh an Treoigh, Co. Limerick

The Ireland's Ancient East
STOP 08 / 08

Caladh an Treoigh · Co. Limerick

A university suburb on the east edge of Limerick. That is the honest version.

Castletroy is a suburb without pretence. It is not a village that happens to have a university - it is a university that happened to a suburb. For most of the 20th century the area was farmland and a couple of small villages, Annacotty and Monaleen, sitting outside the Limerick city boundary. Then the National Institute for Higher Education opened on the Plassey estate in 1972, and over the following decades Castletroy became one of the fastest-growing places in the country.

The name is older than any of that. Caladh an Treoigh, the callow or riverside meadow of the Treoch, takes its English form from Castle Troy, the tower house the O'Briens built on the Shannon bank in the 13th century. The locals call it the Black Castle. It was knocked about in the Cromwellian wars and has been a ruin since the 1600s. So the place is both very new and very old at once: a 1970s commuter suburb wrapped around a medieval stump of a castle.

The place to understand it is term time. Term starts and Castletroy fills with students renting rooms; the chip shops stay open late and the coffee places find a rhythm. Term ends and a good slice of the population drains back to wherever home is. The permanent residents - families, university staff, the people who got here before the campus - are the town underneath, and they are what make it a place rather than a campus overflow.

Do not come for nightlife or character shopping. Come because you have university business, because you live here, or because your budget will not stretch to the city proper and Castletroy is a short hop away. There are two genuinely worthwhile things to walk to: the Living Bridge across the Shannon on the UL campus, the longest pedestrian bridge in Ireland, and the river walks along the Shannon and the Mulcair. That honesty is the whole point.

Population

~14,700 (2016, plan area incl. Annacotty)

Founded

Tower house 13th century; suburb from the 1970s around UL

Coords

52.6624° N, 8.5704° W

01 / 08

At a glance.

Three things every local will eventually mention. Read these and you've already understood more than most day-trippers do.

01 The university

UL is the whole story here.

The campus sits on the old Plassey House grounds on the east side of Limerick, straddling the River Shannon. Founded as the National Institute for Higher Education in 1972, it became the University of Limerick in 1989. The suburb spins around term time and the campus is the reason Castletroy exists in its present form.

Stories & lore → 02 The Black Castle

A 13th-century ruin on the Shannon bank.

Castle Troy - the Black Castle - is the tower house the suburb is named after. An O'Brien castle from the reign of Henry III, battered in the Cromwellian wars and a ruin ever since. It stands on the south bank of the Shannon, reachable on foot from the campus.

Walks & outings → 03 The roads

Mostly the Dublin Road and residential lanes.

The N/R445 Dublin Road is the spine, with the Town Centre, the hotel and the housing estates strung off it. Tree-lined, busy at school run and term start. Limerick city centre is a ten-minute bus ride west.

Getting there →

02 / 08

Where to eat.

Place	Type	€	Local note
McLaughlin's Restaurant	Hotel restaurant at the Castletroy Park Hotel, Dublin Road	€€€	The fine-dining room at the Castletroy Park Hotel, with a Sunday lunch built around roast beef carved at the table and menus leaning on seasonal local produce. The proper night out in Castletroy, such as it is. Book at the weekend.
The Brasserie	Hotel brasserie at the Castletroy Park Hotel, Dublin Road	€€	The casual half of the hotel and a long-standing meeting point for locals, students' parents and business travellers. Contemporary-meets-traditional menu, reliable rather than thrilling, and the easiest sit-down meal on the Dublin Road.

03 / 08

Where to sleep.

Place	Type	Local note
Castletroy Park Hotel	4-star hotel, Dublin Road	The hotel for the suburb, a four-star on the Dublin Road minutes from the UL campus and the city. Leisure centre with a 65-foot pool, gym and spa, plus McLaughlin's and the Brasserie for food. Where graduation weekends and conference crowds stay; book well ahead in convocation season.

04 / 08

Stories & lore.

The reason to come back. The things every local will eventually tell you about, usually after the second pint.

The 1972 moment

From NIHE to UL

The National Institute for Higher Education, Limerick opened in 1972 on the Plassey estate, part of a national plan to put third-level education in places beyond Dublin. It was known as NIHE. In 1989 the government made it a full university, the University of Limerick, the first new university in the state since independence. The campus grew from there, the suburb grew around it, and in June 2014 Castletroy was finally taken inside the Limerick city boundary.

13th-century O'Brien tower house

The Black Castle

Castle Troy, locally the Black Castle, was built in the 13th century by a member of the O'Brien family during the reign of Henry III. It later passed to the MacKeoghs and on to the Earl of Desmond, and after the Desmond Rebellions to Sir John Bourke of Brittas. Tradition has it that Ireton's Cromwellian forces set up cannon on Harty's Hill and battered it during the 1651 siege of Limerick; it has been a ruin ever since. It stands on the south bank of the Shannon and can be reached on foot from the campus, though the ground is rough and the ruin is not maintained.

An Droichead Beo, 2007

The Living Bridge

The Pedestrian Living Bridge across the Shannon on the UL campus is, at 350 metres, the longest pedestrian bridge in Ireland. Designed by Wilkinson Eyre and built by Eiffel Constructions Metalliques, it opened in November 2007 at a cost of around 12 million euro. Seven 50-metre spans link across the river on piers, with four platform points of refuge along the way. It connects the older south-bank campus to the newer north-bank buildings, and the walk across it is the single best thing to do in Castletroy.

Two quieter survivals

The old church and the Jewish cemetery

The former Church of Ireland parish church at Kilmurry, built around 1812 by the Board of First Fruits, no longer holds services; it has been taken on as the Kilmurry Church arts and cultural project. Less visible again is the small Jewish cemetery dating from the late 19th century, when Limerick had a notable Jewish community; it was renovated and reopened by Chief Rabbi Mervis in 1990. Neither is a tourist attraction in any organised sense, but both are part of the layered history under the housing estates.

05 / 08

Things to do outside.

Wear waterproofs. Bring a sandwich. Tell someone where you're going if it's the mountain.

The Living Bridge and campus loop Start on the south bank of the UL campus, cross the Living Bridge to the north side, and loop back. The river views are the draw and the bridge itself is worth the trip. The campus grounds are open and walkable; the architecture is coherent in a way most Irish institutions are not.

2-3 km loopdistance

45 minutestime

Black Castle on the Shannon bank The ruin sits on the south bank of the Shannon, reachable on foot from the Thomond Village end of campus, roughly a 30-minute walk. Be warned: the site is unmaintained, with broken glass and graffiti. Bring boots and a healthy distrust of the precision of myth.

Short out-and-backdistance

1 hourtime

River Shannon and Mulcair walks There are riverside walks along both the Shannon and the smaller Mulcair, which joins it near here. Not dramatic scenery, but flat, green and quiet, and the way the suburb actually meets its rivers.

Variabledistance

As long as you liketime

06 / 08

When to go.

There is no bad time. There are different times.

Spring

Mar-May

The campus grounds and river walks are at their best, and the place is busy with term but not overrun. UL's parkland greens up nicely.

◉ Go

Summer

Jun-Aug

Term is out and the suburb empties of students, which makes the river walks and the Living Bridge quieter. Graduation weekends fill the hotel. The calmest time to actually look at the place.

◉ Go

Autumn

Sep-Oct

Term restarts and Castletroy is back to full tilt. The Shannon walks are good in October light. The busiest the suburb gets.

◉ Go

Winter

Nov-Feb

Short days and dull weather, and not much here to draw you out beyond the hotel and the campus. Fine if you have business; thin if you do not.

◐ Mind yourself

07 / 08

What to skip.

Honestly? Don't bother.

If a local was sitting beside you, this is the bit where they'd lean in.

Castletroy Town Centre as your tour of Castletroy

It is a shopping centre with a SuperValu, a McDonald's, a multiplex cinema and the usual chains. There is one in every Irish town of this size. Do not write your verdict on the place from the car park. Walk to the river instead.

Expecting a village

There is no old village core here in the picture-postcard sense. Castletroy is a 1970s-onward suburb that swallowed the small villages of Annacotty and Monaleen. The Black Castle and the campus are the only real set-pieces; the rest is housing estates and the Dublin Road.

The Black Castle as a managed heritage site

It is an unmaintained ruin on a riverbank, with broken glass and graffiti, not a visitor attraction with a car park and a tearoom. Worth the walk for the history and the river, but go in expecting a stump, not a castle tour.

Getting there.

By car

Limerick city centre is about 3 km west. The Dublin Road (R445, the old N7 line) runs through the suburb and links to the M7 motorway for Dublin. City-centre car parks fill at weekends.

By bus

Limerick city buses connect Castletroy and the UL campus to the city centre regularly through the day; the campus is a short ride from Colbert Station and the bus station. Walkable to the city in well under an hour if you do not mind the distance.

By train

Colbert Station in Limerick city centre is the railhead, on the line to Limerick Junction for Dublin and Cork connections. Take a bus or taxi the last few kilometres out to Castletroy.

By air

Shannon Airport (SNN) is about 25 km west, roughly half an hour by car. Cork is around 1 hour 30 south; Dublin is about 2 hours 30 northeast.