Castle - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

On overgrown rock outcrop in low-lying pastureland. Indicated and named ‘Bunakippaun Castle (in ruins)’ on the 1842 and 1920 eds. of the OS 6-inch map. The later edition shows hachures indicating the earthwork on which the castle stood. On the 25-inch map this has more the appearance of a possible bawn with a fosse at SW. This castle was owned by O’Brien family by at least 1574 until 1586 when it was taken and leased to Englishmen Thomas Cheyny and then John Bealinge (Ua Cróinín and Breen 1997). The castle seems to have been in ruins in 1613, but there is a tradition that when the remains of the Irish forces were returning home from the Battle of Aughrim in 1691, the residents of Bunakippaune Castle threw all their valuables into a nearby lake (ibid.).

No upstanding remains survive in this D-shaped area (18m NE-SW; 15m NE-SW) of scrub and rock outcrop which has been truncated at the SW, creating a slight scarp (H c. 0.5m). There are several large fragments of masonry (L c. 3m; Wth 2m; H 1m); one incorporates part of a barrel vault while another includes the corner of a room. A later NE-SW field wall overlies the W edge of the monument. There is a well c. 55m to the SE and covered in slabs, at the E side of an overgrown quarry (L c. 15m; Wth c. 8m; D. c. 3m). The quarry may have been the source of stone for the castle.

The following item has been uploaded:
CL011-015002-_01.pdf Details from Risteárd Ua Cróinín and Martin Breen, The Castles and Tower-houses of Co. Clare (unpublished report). Uploaded courtesy of R. Ua Cróinín and M. Breen.

Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Conn Herriott

Date of upload: 23 January 2023

References

Ua Cróinín, R. and Breen, M. 1997 The castles and tower-houses of Co. Clare, 6 vols. Unpublished report submitted to the National Monuments Service, Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Dublin.