Birr Castle facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Birr Castle |
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| Caisleán Bhiorra | |
| Birr, County Offaly | |
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 Birr Castle
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| Coordinates | 53°05′43″N 7°54′53″W / 53.09536°N 7.91476°W |
| Type | Castle |
| Site information | |
| Owner | 7th Earl of Rosse |
| Open to the public |
no |
| Site history | |
| Built | 1170 |
Birr Castle (in Irish: Caisleán Bhiorra) is a large castle in the town of Birr in County Offaly, Ireland. It is the home of the 7th Earl of Rosse and his family. While the castle itself isn't usually open to visitors, its amazing grounds and gardens are. These grounds include a science museum, a café, a giant old telescope, and even a modern radio telescope.
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History of Birr Castle
A castle has stood on this spot since 1170. For hundreds of years, from the 1300s to the 1600s, the O'Carroll family ruled this area from Birr Castle.
In 1620, Sir Lawrence Parsons was given Birr Castle and about 1,277 acres of land. He hired English builders to construct a new castle. This new building was put up at the old gatehouse. Two "flankers" (small towers) were added to the gatehouse. This gave the castle the shape it still has today.
After Sir Lawrence Parsons and his oldest son died, the castle went to his younger son, William. During the Irish Rebellion of 1641, William was trapped inside Birr Castle for fifteen months by Catholic forces. After this civil war, William's son, Laurence, updated the castle.
Later, another family member, Laurence Parsons, 2nd Earl of Rosse, also rebuilt parts of the castle. He made it taller and gave it a "Gothic" style in the early 1800s. His son, the 3rd Earl of Rosse, built the famous telescope at Birr. When it was finished in 1845, it was the largest telescope on Earth. It could gather more light and see further into space than any telescope before it. Because of this, Birr became a very important place for studying space. Visitors came from all over the world to see the observatory. These visitors included Charles Babbage and Prince Napoléon Eugène, Prince Imperial.
When the 3rd Earl died, his sons continued the family's interest in science. Lawrence Parsons, 4th Earl of Rosse is known for measuring the heat coming from the Moon. However, after his death in 1908, the telescope slowly fell apart. Its main mirror was moved to the Science Museum in London. Around 1914, the telescope's metal frame was melted down to be used in the First World War. In 1925, the wooden parts around the walls were taken down for safety. After some smaller attempts to fix it, the telescope was fully restored in the late 1990s.
The Castle Grounds (Demesne)
Where are the grounds?
The castle grounds stretch south and south-east from Birr town centre. The main entrance for visitors is through a courtyard. You cannot go directly into the castle itself. The castle faces into the grounds, with a private gate over a dry moat separating it from the wider parkland. The entrance courtyard has the Science Centre, a café, a shop, and the garden entrance. The family has a private entrance with a large gate lodge nearby.
Birr's main river, the River Camcor, flows into the grounds near the castle. It then goes through a pond and into the Little Brosna River. This river marks the border between Counties Offaly and Tipperary, and then flows into the Shannon River. You can visit the grounds for a fee. You can also buy an annual pass if you want to visit often.
Ireland's Historic Science Centre
The castle grounds are also home to Ireland's Historic Science Centre. This museum tells the story of Ireland's famous scientists. It shows their important work in astronomy (space study) and botany (plant study). The museum is in a courtyard off William Street. Its exhibits cover topics like astronomy, engineering, photography, and plants. Laurence Parsons, 4th Earl of Rosse, and his mother, Mary Parsons, Countess of Rosse, were excellent photographers. Her darkroom, which you can see in the museum, is thought to be the oldest one still existing in the world.
Café and Shop
The Castle Courtyard Café and a small shop are in the same courtyard as the Science Centre.
Parklands and Gardens
The castle grounds have the oldest wrought-iron bridge in Ireland, built in 1820. There was also an early power station near the bridge and castle that used water to make electricity.
The walled gardens in the grounds have Box Hedges that are over 300 years old. According to The Guinness Book of Records, they are also the tallest hedge in the world!
The Birr Castle Grey Poplar tree was Ireland's entry in the 2014 European Tree of the Year contest. Sadly, in February 2014, while voting was still happening, a storm blew it down.
Support for the Demesne
The castle grounds have a charity that offers memberships. These can be for three months, six months, or a full year. They allow you to visit as many times as you like.
The grounds also have a forest of giant sequoia redwoods from California. This area is called Giants' Grove. You can even sponsor one of these trees. There was also a past tree sponsorship program with the Tree Council of Ireland.
Astronomy at Birr Castle
The "Great Telescope" – The Leviathan
A very important feature on the castle grounds is the "Great Telescope." It is also called the Leviathan of Parsonstown or The Rosse Telescope. It was built by the third Earl of Rosse. This astronomical telescope has a huge mirror, 183 cm (72 inches) across. It was finished in 1845 and was used for many decades. The last observations were made in the early 1900s. Its record size was not beaten until the 100-inch (2.5-meter) Hooker Telescope was finished in 1917. The Leviathan was taken apart in 1914. However, its structure was rebuilt and the telescope put back together in the 1990s. Visitors can see it, and sometimes they even show how it moves.
Modern Radio Astronomy
Trinity College Dublin rents land on the Birr Castle Demesne. Here, they run the Rosse Observatory. This observatory includes the Irish station of the LOFAR network, called I-LOFAR. It also has some other smaller radio telescopes. I-LOFAR is run by a group of Irish schools and universities. These projects have brought space research back to Birr. This is after a hundred-year break since the Leviathan telescope was taken out of use.
These astronomy projects are located near the Little Brosna River. In 2010, astrophysicist Peter T. Gallagher from Trinity College Dublin met Lord Rosse. He was looking for quiet places for radio telescope projects. They agreed to use an old sheep yard. This agreement led to the Rosse Solar-Terrestrial Observatory, a Trinity College Dublin project. It was officially opened in 2014. Its antennas pick up signals from the Sun, even when it's cloudy. The old sheep building was turned into a control room. A device to measure Earth's magnetic field was also installed. By 2012, they were already recording solar bursts. A major solar burst was found by the Birr system in 2014. This discovery was reported in a science magazine called Nature Physics.
Meanwhile, the team started building the I-LOFAR radio-telescope station (IE613). This is a part of a network that stretches across Europe. It was mostly built in 2016 and switched on at Birr in 2017. It was built in fields between the Camcor and Little Brosna Rivers. As an international LOFAR station, it has twice as many antennas as a Dutch remote station. It has four times as many antennas as a core Dutch station. It has 192 antennas, each with two ways to pick up signals, making a total of 384 antennas. I-LOFAR is the most western station in the LOFAR network. In 2018, the I-LOFAR telescope saw a billion-year-old red-dwarf, flare star called CN Leo for the first time. This star is almost 75 trillion kilometres away! There is a special viewing spot for visitors to see the telescope structure.
See also
In Spanish: Castillo de Birr para niños
