The De Berneval family, (later anglicised to Barnewall), were an Anglo-Norman family who had an established relationship with the throne of England from the time of William the Conqueror.
Under King Henry II, Sir Michael De Berneval is said to have landed at Berehaven, County Cork in or around the same period of Richard De Clares’ (‘Strongbow’) famous Norman landing at Wexford in 1170.
In 1212 Hugh De Berneval traveled to Ireland and in 1216 was granted the lands at Drimnagh and Terenure by mandate of King John I.
The De Berneval or Barnewall family were to reside at the castle for the next 400 years.
The castle was granted to Sir Adam Loftus in 1607 by James I, and changed hands many times for the next 300 years. One owner being William Petty, Lord Lansdowne.

The last private owners of the castle were the Hatch family who bought the castle in the early 1900’s and passed the castle to the Bishop of Nara in 1953, from there it was passed to the Christian Brothers to build a school on the lands. The Hatch family, who were dairy farmers, were the last family to live in Drimnagh Castle. They gave the castle and lands to the Christian Brothers in 1954. The Brothers used the castle as a school from 1954 until 1956 when a newly built school was opened in the castle grounds.

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In the 1980s the castle was fully restored and now you can go on a guided tour and look at its beautiful garden laid out in the style of the seventeenth century. You can see the castle on television as it has been used for filming ‘The Tudors’, among other productions.

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