06/15/2026: Tyrrellspass

Christine is in a book club and when she mentioned our trip to Ireland/Scotland, one of her friends (Terry) mentioned a place named Tyrrellspass and even sent Christine a photo of the Tyrrellspass castle. Well, that clinched it. If we were in Ireland, we had to visit Tyrrellspass. That village is about 60 miles west of Dublin, so the big question was how are we going to get there. I researched trains and buses, which was possible, but took hours and was surprisingly expensive, and we couldn’t count on the timing of the buses. So, that left the option of renting a car for the day, which we did. I have driven on the left twice, so I thought I could do it okay.

We walked about 20 minutes this morning to the car rental place, which was not easy to find. The office was in the back corner of a parking garage, so we had to hunt around a bit for it. I managed to get all the paperwork completed and, as you know, by the time every option you pick is paid for, the car is much more that the $80/per day you said, “oh, that’s not bad.” At any rate, we got a Toyota Yaris hybrid, a very tiny little car. I spent time videoing the entire outside of the car and playing with all the controls so I knew where everything was. We spent money for a nav system, but what that turned out to be was Android car play, so I used Google Maps on my phone, which displayed on the dashboard. The most nerve wracking part was getting off the 5th floor of the parking garage. The turns were soooo narrow. I can’t imagine what larger cars do, although we didn’t see too many larger cars in Dublin.

Once out of the garage, we turned right and then left about 20 times to get out of center city Dublin. I had a hard time understanding all the street markings, but as long as there was a car in front of me heading in the same direction or turning where I needed to turn, everything was okay. After about 20 minutes, we left center city and got onto the M4, a major highway going west. It was pretty smooth sailing after that. At the toll plazas, you tap your credit card to pay the toll, which took all of 5 seconds to register.

Our directions were good getting to Tyrrellpass, which is a lovely little Irish village.

The first official language of the Republic of Ireland is Irish (Gaeilge), and as you can see from the bilingual sign, it is a doozy of a language. It is mostly spoken is smaller rural areas, but it is mandatory for children to learn it in school. English is the second official language. I found it nearly impossible to understand Irish, and most of the time I had a had time with Irish English speakers.

We walked around the village green and chatted with a worker who was fixing a post where a statue is supposed to stand. The village green is bordered by a Church of Ireland church, St. Sinian’s. I didn’t know there was a Church of Ireland, which is a member of the Anglican communion. The cornerstone of the church was laid in 1810. I thought the church had been closed, but it apparently is still in use.

The rectory, across the street from the church is a beautiful building. That little gray car parked in front of the rectory is the Toyota we rented. There were several really nice houses along the small street, referred to as the Crescent, to the right of the rectory.

We wandered through the village down Main Street. In addition to shops and houses, there were lovely flowers everywhere, many in the gardens of the houses. Christine really enjoyed photographing the beautiful flowers.

Just outside the village is Tyrrellspass Castle, now a restaurant. This is the place we came to see. The part of the small castle that is still in use is called a tower house. It was fully renovated in the 1970s by a local architect. A main beam found in the house was carbon-dated to 1411. The ground floor was turned into a restaurant several years ago after the tower house was renovated. We were disappointed to learn that the little museum we read about was no longer in operation, so we didn’t learn very much about the structure or the Tyrrell family. Tyrrellspass gets its name from the Hiberno-Norman family, Tyrrell, who were granted the title of Lords of the Barony of Faftulagh, in which the village is situated. They arrived just after the Norman invasion. Most of these settlers actually came from England and Wales. The Irish Tyrrells held many strongholds in the Midlands and built tower houses on strategic, passable routes through boglands. That’s how they made their fortune, collecting tolls. The Tyrrellspass tower house is the only Tyrrell tower house remaining.

Richard Tyrrell became famous during the Nine Years War. In 1597 he commanded troops in winning the Battle of Tyrrellspass against the British. Tyrrell’s 300 men defeated the Brit’s 1,000 men. I wonder if Christine’s family tree could ever be traced back to the original Irish Tyrrells or whether her family tree remains English.

The tower house is really quite an impressive structure, much bigger than I had imagined. The castle part is a rather dilapidated circular structure, but it is the tower house that was extensively renovated.

We had a fantastic lunch in the restaurant, filet of salmon on mashed potatoes and veggies of carrots and broccoli. The portions were huge and I was so surprised by the affordability of such a large meal. We really enjoyed the salmon. It was silky smooth and it came with a wine cream sauce that was delicious. And even though the meal was large, we indulged in cappuccinos and dessert. Christine had strawberry cheesecake and I had profiteroles. Yum!

We decided to take a different route back to Dublin and so we set off on a secondary road towards a village named Edenderry. The scenery was beautiful, and what you might expect, very green. The area was mostly agricultural with lots of cattle and some sheep. It got a little hairy on the route back because the lanes are so narrow. I kept sideswiping the tall vegetation along the side of the road on the left, which was scaring Christine to no end. I did hit a curb, too, something I had done before when driving on the left in the UK. I hate those curbs that sneak out into the road around pedestrian crossings. After many miles of narrow lanes, we decided to get back on the M4 highway. I had a difficult time following the route being spoken because the words were not matching up with the signage. I had to turnaround at least 3 times before getting back into Dublin. Once in Dublin, it was left, right, right, left for about 5 miles. We eventually made it back to the parking garage, but then I had to drive up 5 floors. I kept hitting the rubber posts along the left side as I came around the corners. But we made it back in relatively good shape. One wheel had a dent where I hit the curb, and the back right fender had a scrape mark. I don’t think I actually caused that, but I won’t be surprised to get a big, fat bill for damage to the vehicle. However, my per-departure video does show some damage in that spot. We’ll see what happens.

We were glad to dump the car, but glad we went on that little adventure. We’ll remember Tyrrellspass Castle and the nice day we had visiting the village and tower house.