Askeaton Castle & Friary

If you drive through Ireland, you'll notice that the country is insanely visitor friendly. We had everything that we wanted to see and do mapped out months before our trip, but we still ended up with some down time most days we were there. If we had extra time between our plotted out stops, we noticed that the major roads had signage indicating that the next exit would take us to nearby castles and abbeys. I didn't have a stop planned for Askeaton, Ireland, but while castle hopping we decided to follow the signs and make a detour since we were ahead of schedule. We arrived at the Askeaton Castle fairly quickly (sometimes it does take a bit of a drive to reach the castles once you exit), found parking on the street nearby, and walked over to have a peek. Our first impression: there wasn't much to look at.

Some of the off the beaten path castles and abbeys in Ireland were in ruins, but we were still able to walk up and explore them. However, we were stopped by a construction worker who politely let us know that the Askeaton Castle was undergoing major construction and wasn't open for touring. We thanked him for letting us know, then proceeded to just stay on the side walk so I could try to grab a few photos before we left.

When the same construction worker noticed I had my bulky camera out and was snapping photos, he came back out of the gated off area and said, "I see you're snapping photos. If you'd like, come on in and get a closer look, but watch your step!" I've said it before, and I'll say it again, you will not find a more welcoming people than the Irish. They definitely know how to be hospitable!

Jason and the girls stayed towards the front and chatted with the friendly Irishman, while I walked a few yards ahead and took a few snaps. I didn't want to overstep my welcome, so I didn't go far in, but still managed to see most of the work that's been done so far.

"You were quick with your pictures. Are you sure you got enough? Did you take some pictures of the windows up there?" I assured him I did and thanked him for giving us the privilege to have a closer look. As we were leaving, he made sure to stop us again to insist that we drive a block up the road to see the abbey. "You absolutely must visit the abbey up the road before you leave. Head on up this road, make a left, and there you are! But be sure to lock up your doors before you leave your car behind. We've had some vandals running around here and I'd hate for anything to happen to it." We chatted a few more minutes and he reminded us 2 more times to lock up the car and beware of vandals before we left. He was such a lovely gentleman!

We arrived at the Askeaton Friary within 2 minutes, and oh, what a lovely Friary it was!

The very first thing we spotted was a beautiful horse just standing in a field of wildflowers next to the abbey.

I was slapped with an overwhelming feeling of Ireland's magic then and there. I mean, what screams fairy tale more than Ireland, abbeys, and horses?

Askeaton Friary was founded in 1389, but a good bit of it was still standing. I'm not sure if you can tour inside the Friary since all of the doors were barred and locked shut. However, we were still able to walk the grounds and soak in all of its beauty.

There were no other people milling around, so we had the whole place all to ourselves (and thankfully didn't run into any vandals lol). We spent about 20 minutes walking the grounds before heading out. Once you are back near the road, you can look out over the water and get a lovely view of the castle again.

So, my tip for first time travelers to Ireland would be to schedule some time in your travel itinerary to do a little detouring. We never would have stopped in Askeaton during our travels there, but I'm so happy we decided to make a snap decision to veer off course. Askeaton was so charming and I have some really amazing memories of our unplanned stop to the town.


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Do you always stick to your travel itinerary, or do you like to detour off the plans to try to find unexpected magic on your journey?