The ancient stronghold of the O’Carrolls, of Ely-O’Carrol, is situated in the parish of Aghancon, in the Barony of Ballybritt, King’s County, about five miles south-east of Birr.

Its former name of Leim-Ui-Bhanain denoted “The Leap of O’Banan,” and it is still known as “The Leap” in the district.

There are several legends to account for its designation. One is that two brothers came to the rock on which the castle is built, and they decided that whichever of them survived, after leaping to the ground below, should erect the stronghold. One of the two was killed by the jump.

Another story of a leap is told of a period long after the castle was built. Sometime during the sixteenth century the O’Carrolls’ fortress was besieged by the English forces, and in a sortie the garrison took prisoner a young Captain Darby, who was with the attacking party. The room where he was imprisoned in the castle is still shown. The daughter of the chief was deputed to carry him his food, which was delivered through a hole in the wall. But the young Englishman made good use of his slender opportunities by winning the heart of the Irish maid, so that she connived at his escape by unbarring his prison. When running down the stone stairs which led to the cell in which he had been confined, he met her brother coming up, who raised the alarm regarding the escaping captive. Nothing daunted, young Darby turned and

ascended to the battlements, where, it is said, he leaped from the castle roof into a large yew-tree, the roots of which have only lately been removed. That the young couple were eventually married is a satisfactory ending to the romance, and certain it is that Leap Castle passed to the Darby family as the marriage portion of an O’Carroll’s daughter who married a Darby, son of an English knight.

The castle is supposed to have been built by the Danes prior to the English invasion, during their conflicts in these parts with the more recently landed Norwegians. The structure resembles their form of defence, being of pyramidical shape, and built in the rubble masonry of that period, with pre-Norman arches and small loopholes for the discharge of arrows and javelins. The walls vary from 15 to 25 feet in width. There are several stone stairways in the thickness of the walls, and parts of them are brightly polished from constant use. The keep is the oldest construction, and it forms the hall of the present edifice. The wings, one at each side, were built at the end of the sixteenth or beginning of the seventeenth century. That on the north-west connects what is known as the “Priest’s House” with the main building. This dwelling is of fourteenth-century masonry, and was used as the chief residence of the family in times of peace.

In the top of the keep is situated what is known as “The Bloody Chapel,” having been desecrated by one Teige O’Carroll, who murdered his brother before the altar. It was formerly covered with a stone roof, but this gave way last century. A curious old stone-fastening remains that formerly received the bar of the door.

Off the chapel is the oubliette, formerly supplied with a spring death-trap. Not so very long ago three cart-loads of bones were removed from it and buried in consecrated ground. Bits of several old watches were found among the remains.

Large dungeons are situated below the keep, and there are many bricked-up passages and secret chambers. One of the former is said to lead to a neighbouring rath. The guard-room on the south-east side is hewn out of the rock. Numerous bones have been found in different parts of the building.

The site of the castle was evidently chosen to guard the river ford and the pass of the Slieve Bloom Mountains into Tipperary. Many bones have been found in a field near the river. A village once surrounded the castle, but only the ruins of the houses now remain.

The O’Carrolls, whose chief stronghold the castle was, are supposed to have wrested it from its original builders, the Danes.

In 1154 Henry II. granted Ely O’Carroll to Theobald de Walter, but he was entirely unable to take possession of any but the lower portion of the kingdom.

In 1489 John O’Carroll died of plague at Leap. The visitation was at this time so bad that hundreds of bodies lay unburied.

Gerald Fitz-Gerald, 8th Earl of Kildare and Lord Deputy of Ireland, set out for Leamyvannan in 1513 to put down a rising of the O’Carrolls. He failed to take the castle, “as was seldom the case with him,” and retreated to collect fresh forces.

Returning with a splendid company he was shot by an O’More while watering his horse at the River Greese, near Kilkea, and he died a few days later at Kildare.

Three years afterwards his son attacked Leap, and took the stronghold, of which it is recorded, “there was scarcely any castle at that period better fortified and defended than this, until it was demolished upon its warders.”

In 1522 the Earl of Kildare made it a charge against his rival, Sir Piers Butler, Lord Deputy, that he had lent O’Carroll cannon to defend Leap against him in 1516. The charge was hardly denied, but the defence was put forward that the attack on O’Carroll was unwarranted.

Mulrony O’Carroll died at Leap in 1532. It is recorded that he was “a triumphant traverser of tribes; a jocund and majestic Munster champion, a precious stone, a carbuncle gem, the anvil of the solidity, and the golden pillar of the Elyans.”

He was succeeded in the chieftainship by his son, Ferganainm, but the succession was disputed by a senior branch of the family who were in possession of Birr. Ferganainm enlisted the aid of his father-in-law, the Earl of Kildare, who received a wound during the dispute which hurried his end.

It was, no doubt, at this time that a terrible massacre took place at Leap Castle upon the rival branch of the sept, who had been invited to the stronghold under the guise of friendship. Lord Deputy Grey may have had this act of treachery in his mind when writing of O’Carroll, Baron of Ely, in Edward VI.’s reign, he speaks of him as “false.” It is stated that this O’Carroll made submission to Lord Leonard Grey in 1537.

Twenty years later (1557) the Earl of Sussex, Lord Justice, made a hosting into Fircall, penetrating into Ely, where he took Leap Castle. But this expedition seems, mainly, to have been directed against the O’Connors, who had taken refuge there after their escape from Meelick Castle, and “the goodness of his steed” is said to have saved O’Connor from his pursuers, who took the Leap without opposition. O’Carroll became re-possessed of the stronghold shortly afterwards.

There was a Jonathan Darby, Captain of Sussex Horse, in 1553, and perhaps it was during this expedition that the romance before related took place. A tomb in the neighbouring graveyard records the death of a Jonathan Darby in 1601.

It is said an inquisition was called at Lemyvanane in 1568 for the preparation of a deed by which Ely O’Carroll was surrendered to the king by “Sir William O’Kerroll,” to whom it was restored by letters patent, but there is some confusion about the dates and conditions of the several transfers.

In 1604 Ely O’Carroll was annexed to the King’s County.

During the Parliamentary wars, Mr. Darby, of Leap, espoused the King’s cause, and tradition avers that Cromwell appeared before the castle saying that if they did not surrender in twenty-four hours he would blow them out with a pump-stick. The fortress was not tenable in the event of cannon being used, as it is commanded from many points.

A weird story is told of the Jonathan Darby of the time, usually known as “the wild Captain.” It is said before he surrendered the castle he collected all his money and treasure and with the aid of two servants hid it somewhere in the walls of the fortress. He then sent one of them for his sword and in the meantime threw the other over the battlements. Upon the messenger returning he slew him with the weapon he brought, evidently thinking “a secret is only safe with three when two are dead.” Later he was arrested on a charge of high treason and imprisoned in Birr. He was several times reprieved, and at last liberated, his legs having mortified. Upon his return he was only capable of murmuring “My money, my money,” but was quite unable to say where it was concealed.

In 1691 a Captain Darby, of the Leap, is alleged to have committed many deeds of daring against rapparees. It would appear that the estate was mortgaged for a nominal sum to one John Holland for fear of confiscation, for Charles II. re-granted the land to this Holland as mortgagee.

Admiral Darby, who commanded the Bellerophon at the battle of the Nile, 1798, was one of the Darbys of Leap.

The present owner is Jonathan Charles Darby, Esq., D.L., who resides in the castle.