Rock of Dunamase
— a Norman keep the rock outlasted.
Not only on a wall.
“A medieval ruin on a 46-metre limestone outcrop, rising out of flat midland farmland. The fortress here was old before the Normans arrived: Viking raiders sacked the original Dún Másc in 845. William Marshal's family built the stone castle that survives, around 1208. Cromwell's troops broke most of it in 1650. What stands now stands without a roof: gatehouses, curtain walls, the empty doorway of the keep. From the upper ward the Slieve Bloom Mountains sit on the western horizon. Most days, nobody else is on the path.
Rock of Dunamase, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
The place, in three passes.
The Rock of Dunamase sits on a 46-metre limestone outcrop on the Laois plain, about 6 kilometres east of Portlaoise on the N80 toward Stradbally. The name comes from the Irish Dún Másc, the fort of Masc, and the site was already old when Viking raiders sacked it in 845, an event recorded in the Annals of the Four Masters. The surviving medieval castle was largely the work of William Marshal in the early thirteenth century, after his marriage to Isabel de Clare brought the rock into his family's holdings. The site is in the care of the Office of Public Works and is open year-round at no charge.
The defensive scheme stacks four layers up the rock: an outer barbican, a lower bailey, an inner gatehouse, and the upper ward with the great keep. Most of what stands is the work of William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, in the first decade of the thirteenth century. Marshal also undertook major works at Pembroke and Chepstow Castles in the Welsh Marches. The site changed hands repeatedly through the medieval and early-modern centuries and was slighted by Cromwellian forces in 1650, when much of the upper ward was reduced to the curtain-wall fragments visible today. Two of the upper-ward gateways still carry their thirteenth-century arches.
The site is open year-round, with no admission fee and no gate. A small unmarked car park sits at the base of the rock off the L4663 (signed from the N80), and a grass path climbs through the lower defences to the summit in about ten minutes. There is no visitor centre, no signage on the walls themselves, and no toilet. Sturdy footwear is sensible: the upper ward is uneven and unfenced, and the views over the Laois plain and toward the Slieve Bloom Mountains are unguarded on every side. The site is in the care of the Office of Public Works.