Reginald's Tower

Reginald's Tower is the oldest civic urban structure in Ireland and has played a pivotal role in the country's history. The precursor of this tower is believed to be Dundory, a Viking fortification built on this site during the 10th century. This early fort formed the apex of the triangular Viking settlement and was in all probability a port for Viking longboats.

It was strategically located on the high ground between a tidal inlet or branch of St. John's river in the south east (since drained and now known as the Mall) and the River Suir to the north

During the medieval period the tower continued to be surrounded by water both to the north and the south east. When the Anglo-Normans attacked Waterford in 1170 the tower was of strategic importance and its capture heralded the fall of the city. The Hiberno-Norse (Irish-Viking) ruler of the city Ragnall MacGillemaire was held prisoner by the Anglo-Normans in the tower and it is from him that the tower receives its name.

It was in this tower that Strongbow, the leader of the Anglo-Norman invasion force, met Aoife, the daughter of Dermot McMurrough, King of Leinster. Their marriage was to change the course of Irish history forever. In later centuries the Tower took on the functions of a royal castle.

King John visited the tower in 1210 and ordered new coins to be struck here. Richard II visited the tower in 1394 and again in 1399. On 27 July 1399 Richard left Reginald's Tower as King of England and Wales; on his arrival in England he was captured by the future Henry VI and forced to abdicate.

In 1463 the Irish Parliament established a mint in the tower. In 1495 cannon in Reginald's Tower successfully turned away the forces of Perkin Warbeck, the pretender to the throne of Henry VII. This act of loyalty earned the city its motto "Urbs Intacta Manet" - "Waterford remains the unconquered city".

In 1690 following his defeat at the Battle of the Boyne, King James II of England is alleged to have climbed to the top of the tower to take a last look at his lost kingdom before embarking for exile in France.

During the 17th and 18th centuries the Tower was used as a store for munitions and in the early 19th century it functioned as a prison. In the late 19th and first half of the twentieth century it became the residence of the Chief Constable of Waterford. The Tower was opened to the public for the first time in the 1950s