Parke's Castle (also known as Newtown Castle and O'Rourke's Castle) is a 17th century semi-fortified manor house, situated on the northeast shore of Lough Gill. The castle is built on the site of an earlier sixteenth-century O'Rourke (Uí Ruairc) Gaelic tower house. The castle and bawn had come into the possession of Robert Parke by 1628, possibly earlier. He had been granted some of the former O'Rourke lands as part of the Plantations. By 1635, Parke had completed his fortified manor house on the site of the older Gaelic castle.
Once the Parke family were deceased, the castle passed to the Gore family by the late 1670s, and the manor house was last lived in around 1700. The building quickly became a ruin and remained uninhabited for over 300 years. The bawn was used as a farmyard and stables by the residents of Newtown village right up until the mid-20th century. The building was acquired by the Office of Public Works in 1935.
Excavations directed by Claire Foley between 1971 and 1975 revealed the foundations of O'Rourke's tower house and a number of other structures within the bawn. The castle was restored and refurbished between 1980 and 1988, and has been open to the public on a seasonal basis since 1990.
References:The Clementinum is a historic complex of buildings in Prague. Until recently the complex hosted the National, University and Technical libraries, the City Library also being located nearby on Mariánské Náměstí. The Technical library and the Municipal library have moved to the Prague National Technical Library at Technická 6 since 2009. It is currently in use as the National Library of the Czech Republic.
Its history dates from the existence of a chapel dedicated to Saint Clement in the 11th century. A Dominican monastery was founded in the medieval period, which was transformed in 1556 to a Jesuit college. In 1622 the Jesuits transferred the library of Charles University to the Klementinum, and the college was merged with the University in 1654. The Jesuits remained until 1773, when the Klementinum was established as an observatory, library, and university by the Empress Maria Theresa of Austria.