The site for the castle or palace was chosen on the east bank of Swords River, and the area covered by the buildings was more extensive than is usual for a Norman fortress, while the defences were somewhat less, as we hear no mention, nor see any remains, of the keep, which forms so universal a feature of the chief baronial strongholds.
Authorities place the date of building variously between 1184 and 1282, which gives a somewhat wide margin, but its erection is most generally assigned to John Comyn, the first English Archbishop of Dublin, who was elected at Evesham, 1181, and who was one of those to welcome Prince John at Waterford in 1185. An inquisition of 1265 finds that there was a constable of the castle in this Archbishop’s time.
The palace was built in castellated style, and the range of embattled walls flanked with towers is still complete. The warders’ walk is yet easy to trace. Over the gateway were the apartments for the guard, and just below is still visible the bakehouse chimney, of which mention will be made later.
SWORDS CASTLE.
Like so many of the castles of Leinster, Swords provided for years a convenient quarry for the neighbourhood, and what had once been corner stones of a palace went to support the thatched roofs of the surrounding cabins, so that few of the buildings which stood inside the battlements are now traceable.
In the line of walls is a large window which once occupied the gable end of what is likely to have been the great hall. The mullions of this window, which remained intact until recently, were remarkable for being of red sandstone, which is unknown in the country.
The situation of the chapel may still be discerned by the remnants of some of the stone carving which once adorned its sacred walls.
In 1192 Archbishop Comyn obtained a patent authorising him to hold an annual fair in his manor of Swords, and in 1387 this privilege was confirmed to Robert de Wikeford.