Dublin Castle

You're in the Upper Castle Yard of Dublin Castle. In 1204 King John ordered a fortress built here with strong walls and good ditches, to defend the city, administer justice and guard the king's treasure. Beside it lay a dark pool, dubh linn in Irish, which eventually gave the whole city its name.

1From fortress to palace

Of the medieval castle, only the Record Tower, from around 1230, still stands. After a major fire in 1684, the complex was turned into a Georgian palace for the Lord Lieutenant, the monarch's representative. Ireland was governed from here until 1922, and ‘the Castle’ became shorthand for British rule.

2The vanishing jewels

In July 1907, days before a visit by King Edward VII, it was discovered that the jewels of the Order of St Patrick had disappeared from a safe in the Bedford Tower, the clock tower in front of you. They were never recovered, and no one was ever convicted.

On 16 January 1922, after the Anglo-Irish Treaty, the Castle was handed over to Michael Collins's Provisional Government. The story goes that, told he was seven minutes late, he replied that the Irish had been waiting seven hundred years; it is an anecdote with no reliable source.

Today, Irish presidents are inaugurated here.

3What to look for

• The Bedford Tower, from 1761, with its green dome.
• The statue of Justice: she faces the Castle with her back to the city, which Dubliners remarked on wryly for centuries.
• The Record Tower, in the far corner, the last medieval survivor.