Welcome to the Irish Walled Towns Network
Working to help make walled towns better places to live, work and visit.
The Irish Walled Towns Network (IWTN) was formed by the Heritage Council in 2005 to help the walled towns of Ireland become better places in which to live, work and visit. The island of Ireland has 56 ‘proven’ walled towns, 29 of which have joined the IWTN.
The role of the network is to unite and co-ordinate the strategic efforts of local authorities involved in the management, conservation and enhancement of historic walled towns in Ireland, both North and South, helping to make Ireland’s walled towns become great places in which to live, work and visit.
Guidance and assistance is provided to member towns by providing grants for town wall conservation and for community festivals and heritage interpretation. Training is delivered to community groups on how best to use their town’s heritage for the benefit of those who live there and we regularly research and publish user-friendly advisory documents.
Where are the IWTN towns?
Did you know?
Sir Ernest Shackleton the famous Antarctic explorer was from the walled town of Athy, Co. Kildare.
In 1221, Dublin became the first town in Ireland to receive a ‘murage grant’ (money from the King to build town walls)
Sir Walter Raleigh was a famous resident of the walled town of Youghal He was beheaded in England & It Is said that afterwards his wife carried around his severed head in a velvet bag!
When the walls of Kells, Co. Meath were repaired in the C15th the townspeople were forced to pay for the work, causing many residents to leave the town!
Derry/ Londonderry’s walls have never been breached (broken into by an invading army!) It is the only walled town to have survived all attacks & is nicknamed the ‘Maiden City’ because of it!
The walled town of Carrickfergus Co. Down was the landing place of William of Orange who fought at the Battle of the
Boyne against his father-in-law & became King of England in 1691.
At one stage, Cork City was a monastic settlement, a Viking longphort & an Anglo-Norman town!
Drogheda was originally two walled towns on either side of the River Boyne that became one walled town.