Sigginstown Castle

Click here to edit subtitle

  • Welcome
    Thank you for visiting!
  • Click here to edit title.
    Click here to edit text.
  • Click here to edit title.
    Click here to edit text.
  • Click here to edit title.
    Click here to edit text.
  • Click here to edit title.
    Click here to edit text.
< >

August 15-16,  2020 - We are excited to host our first traditional skills course!


Join Pat Hickey, historic lime expert,  who will teach hot lime wash to sanitize the interior tower walls before other wall treatments.  The course will run Saturday and Sunday, August 15-16 2020  9:30 am to 4 p.m. Course fee is €200, with payment in advance. 


Pat will cover health and safety, preparing and cleaning walls, hot lime mixing, applying hot lime wash and checking progress, colored pigments. You will be working in and on a historic building to learn this skill! Please see full details of course. Class size is 5-10 students. Register by emailing us your contact information




Phase 3 Continues  We are back in Ireland working the castle. Despite a longer than expected break due to the pandemic, we are working away on tower, prepping the Big House, and planning some activities! Read about our construction activities here...

Welcome to Sigginstown...

In May of 2016, after many years of dreaming and a few years of looking, we purchased property in County Wexford, near the sunny south-east coast of Ireland.  

Whereas most people would prefer a nice, clean, modern house, we have taken the road less traveled. Our new place has no roof, windows, doors, electricity or plumbing, but it does have parapets, watchtower, arrow-slits, garderobes, portcullis, fireplaces, spiral staircase, vault and a machicolation! 

That's right - we bought a castle. 
If the word castle makes you think of large luxurious palaces, forget that! Instead think ruin and budget!  There are large castles in Ireland, and then there are "tower houses" of various sizes. This is a smaller example of the latter - a primitive structure with an attached house that was intended for defense against whoever was unfriendly at the time. It would have housed a family, probably some animals, and a few servants. There are about two thousand tower-houses in Ireland, in all sorts of conditions - ranging from crumbled to the ground, to restored and in-between.  

Over time we plan to live in the property and also use it for community and historical events.  As medieval re-enactors, we have long been attracted to historical buildings and would like to see this lovely property have life and energy in it once again. 


Since this journey will take several years, and is a once in a lifetime opportunity for us, we are interested in having others come along and share in the experience. This website is intended to tell that story and illustrate how one building can be used for many different projects and collaborative learning.


We're going on an adventure here: definitely outside our comfort zone and with many challenges ahead - we are looking forward to all of it!