The Ancient Castles of Ireland. Some Fortress Histories and Legends. Illustrated by Rev. Canon Lucius O’Brien. London: Elliot Stock, 1904. First Edition. Pp x, 364, uncut. Ex library copy, with stamps. Rebound in green cloth boards, title lettered in gilt to spine. A very good copy.

In his introduction the author says “The Castles of Ireland are far too numerous for any single volume to contain their separate histories, and all that I claim for the present work is that it includes epitomised accounts of those of chief interest, as well as some regarding which I had special facilities for collecting information. It is, I also believe, the first collection of such records, and therefore I hope but the forerunner of similar works which may be issued in the future, so that the time will yet come when all these interesting relics of a troubled and stormy past may be classified and chronicled, and the present obscurity in which the history of so many of them is shrouded be entirely cleared away.”

Over seventy castles are described, with thirty-nine pen & ink illustrations by Canon O’Brien.