The name was originally Tartain, and is probably derived from Tortan, meaning a diminutive tor, being a small knoll or high turf-bank. The site of the former castle is situated on the southern border of the Barony of Coolock, in the County of Dublin, about three miles from the city.

The Artane Industrial School now occupies the castle grounds, and the manor house is used as the residence of the Christian Brothers. Lewis states that this house was built of stones from the old castle, but, at any rate, the present dining-room is supported by beams taken from the fortress.

A hen-run belonging to the school is now on the site of the former stronghold not far from the present house.

The manor of Artane was acquired by the family of Hollywood, or “de Sacro Bosco,” in the fourteenth century, by Robert de Hollywood, one of the Remembrancers, and afterwards Baron of the Exchequer.

In 1416 and 1420 the King committed the custody of the lands to Philip Charles and Richard FitzEustace during the minority of Robert Hollywood, the King’s ward, son of the late Christopher Hollywood.

On the 27th of July, 1534, the rash Lord Offaly rose in rebellion, and threw the Sword of State on the Council table in Dublin, upon the rumour of his father, the Earl of Kildare, having been murdered in London. He left the presence of the assembly with armed men to muster fresh forces for the rising, and Dublin was at once seized with panic.

John Allen, Archbishop of Dublin, was then in Dublin Castle, and having been as bitter and relentless a foe of the Geraldines as his patron Wolsey, he decided to fly when news of the outbreak reached him. He had with him a trusted servant named Bartholomew FitzGerald, who urged him to sail to England, and offered to pilot him across. The Archbishop seems to have had implicit faith in his follower, although a Geraldine, and it has never been actually proved that it was misplaced.

The Prelate and his attendants embarked in the evening at Dames Gate, but owing, some say to adverse winds, and others to the design of the pilot, the little vessel stranded at Clontarf.

The Archbishop at once made his way to the house of his late friend, Thomas Hollywood, at Artane, whose hospitality he had commemorated in his “Repertorium Viride.”

At this time the wardship of the heir, Nicholas Hollywood, was in the hands of Richard Delahide and Thomas Howth.

It seems hardly possible that the Lord Thomas FitzGerald could have heard of the mishap so quickly unless treachery had been employed. Be that as it may, he and a band of armed followers arrived at Artane in the early morning, being the 28th of July, and surrounded the castle while the Archbishop still slept.

Among the party were the young Vice-Deputy’s uncles, Sir James and Oliver FitzGerald, James Delahide, and about forty men.

He sent two Dublin yeomen, John Teeling and Nicholas Wafer, into the house to bring out the Archbishop. They dragged him out of bed, and brought him before the Lord Thomas “feeble for age and sickness, kneeling in his shirt and mantle, bequeathing his soul to God, his body to the traitor’s mercy.” He “besought him not to remember former injuries, but to consider his present calamity, and whatever malice he might bear to his person to respect his calling.”

It seems that the “Silken Thomas” was touched by the appeal of his helpless foe, and turning his head aside, he said, “Beir naim an bodach,” meaning, “Take the churl away from me,” and, no doubt, as he afterwards said, he only intended them to imprison him. His followers, however, put a different interpretation upon his order, and immediately murdered the Archbishop, who was in the fifty-eighth year of his age.

Some say he was dragged within the castle hall, and there put to death, while others say that the spot on which he was slain was hedged in and shunned as an unholy place for many years.

Lord Thomas could not have been ignorant of what had occurred, as he sent Robert Reilly the same day to Maynooth with a casket which had belonged to the murdered prelate.

Lord Offaly was excommunicated for the crime in St. Patrick’s Cathedral with great solemnity.

Shortly after this Thomas Howth, alias St. Laurence, one of young Hollywood’s guardians, went to live at Artane.

This Nicholas Hollywood also died while his son Christopher was a minor, and in 1570 the wardship and marriage of the boy was granted to John Bathe, of Drumcondra. In 1585 a Charles Hollywood is referred to as being of Tartaine.

Nicholas Hollywood possessed the manor and lands of Artane in 1587. They contained one castle, six messuages, and one hundred and ninety acres of land held of the King, in capite by knight’s service. He died in 1629.

During the rebellion of 1641 Lord Netterville’s son, Luke, possessed himself of the castle, and established a body of Royalist troops in the stronghold. He met with no opposition, as one of the Hollywood family named Christopher was a partisan, who afterwards sat in the Council of Confederate Catholics at Kilkenny.

Nicholas Hollywood forfeited the estate at this time, and John Hollywood, one of the signers of the Roman Catholic Remonstrance, came into possession.

In 1680 the King granted the estate for one thousand years to Sir Arthur Forbes, one of the Commissioners of the Court of Claims.

Lewis says the old Castle was pulled down in 1825 by Mathew Boyle, Esq., who erected the present manor house with the material. He also says it belonged to the Callaghan family in 1837, while D’Alton states Lord Maryborough owned it in 1838. The Butler family resided there at a later date.

A tomb of Elizabeth, daughter of John Talbot of Malahide, and wife of Christopher Hollywood, is in the old churchyard adjacent. She died in 1711, and her husband in 1718.