Thomastown Castle

6mi/9km east of Tipperary on the N74 (the road to Cashel), in the Golden Vale, are the ruins of Thomastown Castle, built in the 17th C. and enlarged in neo-Gothic style about 1812. This was the birthplace in 1790 of Father Theobald Matthew, the "Apostle of Temperance." The castle fell into disrepair from the end of the 18th century and the park, which once had a large French style garden, now forms part of an afforestation scheme.