A second medieval tower house standing a short distance from Ardee Castle, Hatch's Castle is privately owned and not open to the public. That does not make it less worth looking at — the exterior is well-preserved and the contrast between the two castles, facing each other across what was once the main road through town, is one of the more distinctive streetscapes in the Irish midlands.
Hatch's Castle
A story
Despite the name, the Hatch family did not build the castle. They acquired it in the seventeenth century, and the name stuck. The structure itself is medieval, probably contemporary with Ardee Castle across the street. For a long time both castles faced each other on the main thoroughfare like rival sentinels — an unusual concentration of fortified architecture for a small market town.