Publisher's Synopsis
This is the first of a three-volume series dedicated to Dublin Castle and the archaeological excavations carried out there. Volume 1 presents a history of Dublin Castle, covering the period from the first Viking settlement in the 9th century to 1850. The castle was the centre of English (and later British) royal government in Ireland from the 1170s until it was handed over to the Provisional Government of Ireland in 1922. A large early 13th-century castle, built on the orders of King John, stood on the site until it was gradually replaced between the 1680s and the 1770s by the present quadrangle of palatial buildings. The only intact portin of the Medieval castle to survive this rebuilding is the large, circular south-east corner tower, known today as the Record Tower.
