Ashtown Castle is a tower house in Phoenix Park, Dublin, thought to date from the 1430s. The article says a government policy of the time offered £10 to those who built a castle for their own safety, and that the castle was built to dimensions conforming to that policy.
The tower stood hidden within the walls of a later Georgian building, the Under Secretary's Lodge, also called Ashtown Lodge. The Lodge was used by the Papal Nuncio until 1978. That year it was judged structurally irreparable because of dry rot.
The castle was discovered during the Lodge's demolition, and it has since been restored. Today it forms part of the Phoenix Park Visitor Centre, which offers visitor information and an exhibition on the history of the park from 3500 BC to the present.
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