Birr Castle

{{See also|Earl of Rosse}}

There has been a castle on the site since 1170, and from the 14th to the 17th centuries the O'Carroll family ruled from here over an area known as "Ely O'Carroll".{{cite web|author=The Birr Scientific and Heritage Foundation |title=Birr Castle Grounds|publisher=BirrCastle.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080121092537/http://birrcastle.com/birrCastleGrounds.asp |archive-date=21 January 2008|url=http://birrcastle.com/birrCastleGrounds.asp}}

After the death of Sir Charles O'Carroll, Sir Lawrence Parsons (died 1628) was granted Birr Castle and {{Cvt|1277|acre|km2|1}} of land in 1620.{{cite web|author=The Birr Scientific and Heritage Foundation |title=Birr Castle, Co. Offaly. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080807163749/http://www.lawrencetown.com/birr.htm|archive-date=7 August 2008|url=http://www.lawrencetown.com/birr.htm}}cites: {{harvnb|Mosley|2003|p=1327}} Parsons engaged English masons in the construction of a new castle. This construction took place, not on the site of the O'Carrolls' Black Tower (since disappeared), but at its gatehouse. "Flankers" were added to the gatehouse diagonally at either side, giving the castle the plan it retains today.

After the death of Sir Laurence Parsons and of his elder son Richard, the castle passed to his younger son William.{{cite web|author=The Birr Scientific and Heritage Foundation|url=http://www.birrcastle.com/history/familyHistory.asp|title=Birr Castle demesne, Voyage of discovery: Family History|access-date=11 March 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120115040315/http://www.birrcastle.com/history/familyHistory.asp|archive-date=15 January 2012|df=dmy-all}} During the Irish Rebellion of 1641, William was besieged at Parsonstown (as Birr was then) by Catholic forces for fifteen months. After the civil war, William's son Laurence (baronet from 1677) refurbished the castle.{{Cite web|last=O’Byrne|first=Robert|title=Ireland's Historic Birr Castle Receives a Chic Makeover|url=https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/birr-castle-tour-county-offaly-ireland-article|access-date=2020-12-15|website=Architectural Digest|date=May 2015 |language=en-us}}

A later descendant—Laurence Parsons, 2nd Earl of Rosse—also engaged in some re-building, and heightened and "Gothicised" the castle in the early 19th century. In turn, his son, the 3rd Earl of Rosse, was responsible for the construction of the great telescope at Birr. When completed in 1845, it was the largest telescope on Earth, and capable of capturing more light and seeing further into space than any telescope had done before. Birr, therefore, became a focus for astronomical observations, and visitors came to visit the observatory from all over the world—including Charles Babbage and H.I.H. Napoléon Eugène, Prince Imperial.

When the 3rd Earl died, his sons continued the scientific tradition, and Lawrence Parsons, 4th Earl of Rosse is noted for measuring the heat{{what|date=January 2024}} of the moon.{{Cite web|title=Parsons, Laurence|url=http://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/life-society/science-technology/irish-scientists/laurence-parsons-fourth-e/|access-date=2020-12-15|website=www.askaboutireland.ie}} After his death in 1908, however, the telescope fell into disrepair; the mirror was taken to the Science Museum in London,{{cite book |last=De Breffny |first=Brian |author-link= |date=1983 |title=Ireland: A Cultural Encyclopedia |url= |location=London |publisher=Thames and Hudson |page=235|isbn=}} and, circa 1914, the telescope's metal supporting structure was melted down to be used in the First World War. In 1925, the wooden structures around the walls were demolished for safety reasons.

Following several intermediate restoration attempts, the telescope was restored more completely in the late 1990s.[http://www.birrcastle.com/telescopeRestoration.asp Detail on telescope reconstruction] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080927225844/http://www.birrcastle.com/telescopeRestoration.asp |date=27 September 2008 }}

In 2025, the Irish Historic Astronomical Observatories, consisting of Dunsink Observatory, Birr Castle and Armagh Observatory, were added to the World Heritage Tentative List, a step towards becoming a UNESCO World Heritage Site.{{cite web |title=Irish historical observatories seek UNESCO status |url=https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2025/0418/1508329-astronomical-observatories-unesco/ |website=www.rte.ie |publisher=RTÉ |date=2025-04-18 | access-date=2025-04-20}}

File:Birr Castle Offaly.jpgThe demesne runs south and south-east of Birr town centre. The main public entrance is through a courtyard; there is no direct public access to the castle, which faces into the demesne, with an internal gate on a bridge over a dry moat separating the castle's inner surrounds from the broader parkland. The entrance courtyard contains the Science Centre, café, shop and garden entrance, while the family have an ornamental private road gateway, with a large adjoining gate lodge, occupied by a staff member, just to the north.

File:Earl of Rosse flag.svgBirr's main river, the River Camcor, enters the demesne near the castle, and continues through a pond to flow into the Little Brosna River, which in turn marks the border between Counties Offaly and Tipperary, and flows on to the Shannon. The demesne is open to the public for a fee, with an annual subscription available for Friends of Birr Castle Demesne.{{cn|date=January 2024}}

The castle grounds are also home to Ireland's Historic Science Centre, a museum of Ireland's historic scientists and their contributions to astronomy and botany. The museum lies within a courtyard off William Street. Its displays touch on astronomy, engineering, photography, botany and other topics.{{cite web|author=The Birr Scientific and Heritage Foundation|publisher=BirrCastle.com |title=Ireland's Historic Science Centre|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080918064611/http://www.birrcastle.com/historicScienceCentre.asp |archive-date=18 September 2008|url=http://www.birrcastle.com/historicScienceCentre.asp}} Laurence Parsons, 4th Earl of Rosse and his mother, Mary Parsons, Countess of Rosse, were eminent photographers, and her darkroom, which is also on show within the museum, is believed to be the oldest surviving example in the world.{{Cite web|title=Photography - Mary Rosse|website=Birr Castle, Gardens & Science Centre|date=25 March 2016 |url=https://birrcastle.com/photography/|access-date=2020-12-15|language=en-IE}}

The Castle Courtyard Café and a small shop are in the same courtyard as the Science Centre.{{cite book |title=Birr Castle Gardens and Science Centre Visitor Guide |date=June 2018 |publisher=Birr Castle and Demesne |location=Birr, County Offaly}}

The grounds of the castle contain the oldest wrought-iron bridge in Ireland, dating from 1820.The Rough Guide to Ireland, 9th Edition; p 219 {{ISBN|978-1-85828-056-1}} There was also an early hydroelectric station by the bridge and castle.{{cite web |title=hydroelectric power station |url=https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/15414/niah_search_jsp_type_record_county_OF_regno_14819265 |website=europeana.eu |access-date=13 October 2020 |quote=Stone structure, built c.1879, as part of the civil engineering works regulating the flow of the Camcor river mainly for generating electricity at the turbine.}}

The walled gardens in the grounds feature Box Hedges that are over 300 years old. They are also, according to The Guinness Book of Records, the tallest hedge in the world.{{Cite web |url=http://www.irishgameandcountryfair.com/birr.asp |title=The Box Hedge |access-date=15 November 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080701211600/http://www.irishgameandcountryfair.com/birr.asp |archive-date=1 July 2008 |url-status=dead }}

The Irish entry to the 2014 European Tree of the Year contest was the Birr Castle Grey Poplar (Populus × canescens).{{cite web |title=Storm casualties: Ireland's lost trees |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/homes-and-property/gardens/storm-casualties-ireland-s-lost-trees-1.1706766?mode=amp |website=www.irishtimes.com |access-date=3 August 2021}} In February 2014, while voting was still open, it was blown down in a storm.{{cite web |title=European tree of the year contender blows over in storms |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/european-tree-of-the-year-contender-blows-over-in-storms-1.1692428?mode=amp |website=www.irishtimes.com |access-date=3 August 2021}}

The demesne's charitable foundation offers quarterly, half-yearly and annual memberships, including unlimited visiting.{{cite web |title=Become a "Friend" of Birr Castle Demesne |url=https://birrcastle.com/gardens/friends/ |website=Birr Castle Demesne |date=20 January 2017 |access-date=26 October 2020}}

The grounds also contain a plantation of sequoia redwoods from California, Giants' Grove, organised by the estate and Crann, which are available for sponsorship, and the trees from a past sponsorship scheme operated with the Tree Council of Ireland.{{Cite book |title=Birr Castle Demesne - Voyage of Discovery |date=1997 |publisher=The Birr Scientific and Heritage Foundation |location=Birr, County Offaly |quote=(15) The Family Trees ... Tree Council of Ireland}}

File:Dr. Patrick Moore signing his book "The Astronomy of Birr Castle" at NIHE - 1985.jpg signing his book "The Astronomy of Birr Castle" at NIHE – 1985]]

File:The Great Leviathan.jpg]]

{{See also|Leviathan of Parsonstown}}

A major feature on the grounds of the castle is the "Great Telescope" or Leviathan of Parsonstown or The Rosse Telescope of the third Earl of Rosse, an astronomical telescope with a 183-cm (72 in) reflector. It was completed in 1845 and was used for several decades before the last observations were made in the first years of the 20th century. Its record size was not surpassed until the completion of the 100-inch (2.5-meter) Hooker Telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory in 1917. It was dismantled in 1914, but the structure was restored and the telescope reconstructed in the 1990s and is accessible to the public, with occasional demonstrations of its movement, and talks.{{Cite news|last=Ahlstrom|first=Dick|title='Leviathan' part of bigger picture showing contribution of Irish scientists|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/leviathan-part-of-bigger-picture-showing-contribution-of-irish-scientists-1.263932|access-date=2020-12-15|newspaper=The Irish Times|language=en}}

File:I-LOFAR telescope.jpg radio telescope in the castle grounds]]

Trinity College Dublin leases land on the grounds of Birr Castle Demesne on which they operate the Rosse Observatory,{{cite web| title=The Rosse Observatory| url=https://www.rosseobservatory.ie}} which includes the Irish station of the LOFAR network, known as I-LOFAR, as well as some other smaller radio telescopes. I-LOFAR is operated on behalf of a consortium of Irish educational institutions. These operations have brought astronomical research activity back to Birr after a century-long gap since the decommissioning of the Leviathan.

The astronomical projects are situated near the Little Brosna River and the County Tipperary border. Astrophysicist Peter T. Gallagher, then of Trinity College Dublin, met Lord Rosse in 2010 while visiting the demesne in search of suitable quiet sites for radio-telescopy projects, and they agreed to repurpose an old sheep yard.{{cite news |title=Big Day For Birr With Launch Of Solar Observatory |work=Midland Tribune |date=3 July 2020 |quote=An important day in the history of Birr Castle took place on Saturday afternoon when a new space observatory was officially launched. ... possible that one day it could detect the existence of extra-terrestrial life. ... called the Rosse Solar-Terrestrial Observatory and it is located in former farmsheds and fields in the Mount Palmer section of the Demesne. A number of antennae are already in place in the Mount Palmer area, the farm sheds have been considerably renovated, and €300,000 has been raised for the project. ...}} The agreement led to the establishment of the Rosse Solar-Terrestrial Observatory, a Trinity College Dublin project, which was formally opened and blessed on 28 June 2014 (though already fully functional), with antennae picking up solar activity, even in cloudy weather. The sheep pen building was converted into a control room, and a magnetometer, jointly operated between TCD and the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, was also installed. Already by 2012, solar bursts were being documented,{{Cite journal |last1=Zucca |first1=P. |last2=Carley |first2=E. P. |last3=McCauley |first3=J. |last4=Gallagher |first4=P. T. |last5=Monstein |first5=C. |last6=McAteer |first6=R. T. J. |date=2012-10-01 |title=Observations of Low Frequency Solar Radio Bursts from the Rosse Solar-Terrestrial Observatory |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11207-012-9992-x |journal=Solar Physics |language=en |volume=280 |issue=2 |pages=591–602 |doi=10.1007/s11207-012-9992-x |issn=0038-0938|arxiv=1204.0943 |bibcode=2012SoPh..280..591Z |s2cid=255073082 }} and a major solar burst was detected by the Birr system in 2014 and reported in Nature Physics.

In the meantime, the project team started work on establishing the I-LOFAR radio-telescope station (IE613), a node in a Europe-spanning network, which was largely built in 2016, and had its first light opening ceremony on 27 July 2017.{{cite web

| title = Building I-LOFAR

| access-date = 2025-03-15

| website = Irish Low Frequency Array (I-LOFAR)

| url = https://lofar.ie/building-i-lofar/

}} It was constructed in fields in the Mount Palmer area, between the Rivers Camcor and Little Brosna. As an international LOFAR station it has twice the number of antennas of a Dutch remote station, and four times the number of antennas of a core Dutch station.{{Cite journal |title=LOFAR: The LOw-Frequency ARray |url=https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2013A%26A...556A...2V/abstract |journal=Astronomy & Astrophysics |language=en |volume=556 |doi=

10.1051/0004-6361/201220873|arxiv=1305.3550|bibcode=2013A&A...556A...2V |last1=Van Haarlem |first1=M. P. |last2=Wise |first2=M. W. |last3=Gunst |first3=A. W. |last4=Heald |first4=G. |last5=McKean |first5=J. P. |last6=Hessels |first6=J. W. T. |last7=De Bruyn |first7=A. G. |last8=Nijboer |first8=R. |last9=Swinbank |first9=J. |last10=Fallows |first10=R. |last11=Brentjens |first11=M. |last12=Nelles |first12=A. |last13=Beck |first13=R. |last14=Falcke |first14=H. |last15=Fender |first15=R. |last16=Hörandel |first16=J. |last17=Koopmans |first17=L. V. E. |last18=Mann |first18=G. |last19=Miley |first19=G. |last20=Röttgering |first20=H. |last21=Stappers |first21=B. W. |last22=Wijers |first22=R. A. M. J. |last23=Zaroubi |first23=S. |last24=Van Den Akker |first24=M. |last25=Alexov |first25=A. |last26=Anderson |first26=J. |last27=Anderson |first27=K. |last28=Van Ardenne |first28=A. |last29=Arts |first29=M. |last30=Asgekar |first30=A. |date=2013 |pages=A2 |display-authors=1 }} It consists of 192 antennas (96 antennas, each with two polarisations) for each antenna type for a total of 384 antennas.{{Cite journal |title=A census of rotating radio transients at 150 MHz with the Irish LOFAR station |journal=Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society |language=en |volume=527 |doi=10.1093/mnras/stad2900|bibcode=2024MNRAS.527.4397M |last1=McKenna |first1=D. J. |last2=Keane |first2=E. F. |last3=Gallagher |first3=P. T. |last4=McCauley |first4=J. |date=2024 |issue=3 |page=4397 |doi-access=free |arxiv=2302.12661 }} I-LOFAR is the westernmost station in the LOFAR network (the easternmost station is at Irbene in Latvia). The I-LOFAR telescope, in 2018, observed for the first time a billion-year-old red-dwarf, flare star called CN Leo, almost 75 trillion kilometres away.[https://www.irishtimes.com/news/science/birr-radio-telescope-catches-flaring-red-dwarf-75-trillion-kilometres-away-1.3442108 Birr radio telescope catches flaring red dwarf 75 trillion kilometres away] Irish Times, 2018-03-27. There is a viewing point provided for visitors to the demesne to overlook the telescope structure.

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book|editor-last=Mosley |editor-first=Charles |title=Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage (3 volumes) |edition=107th |location=Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A. |publisher=Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd |year=2003 |volume=1 |page= 1327}}

• [http://www.birrcastle.com/ Birr Castle Demesne]

{{Historic Irish houses}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Buildings and structures in Birr, County Offaly

Category:Castles in County Offaly

Category:Gardens in County Offaly

Category:Museums in County Offaly

Category:Science museums in the Republic of Ireland

Category:World Heritage Tentative List