Castle - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

On the easternmost of three sea stacks, in an area known locally as Pouladooneen. Marked as a castle on an island on Henry Pelham’s map (1787), and named ‘Ballyheragh castle’ in an early 19th century list (Dutton 1808). The OS Letters of 1839 (Comber 1997, 95) noted that the site of an old castle at ‘Polladonneen’ was recorded in the Annals of the Four Masters (1632-6). According to Breen and Ua Cróinín (1997, 5) vestiges of masonry survived on top of a sea stack, which may have been part of a peninsula connected to the mainland in the 15th century when the tower house was built. They also suggest that it may have been tower house of the O’Connors of Corcomroe, and that the reference to a cave in the name Pouladooneen (‘Cave of the Little Fort’) might be traced to an ‘impressive’ blowhole in the centre of the western stack (ibid.).

 

Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy and Conn Herriott

 

Date of upload: 6-10-2025

References

Comber, M. (ed.) 1997 The antiquities of County Clare: John O’Donovan and Eugene Curry: Ordnance Survey Letters 1839. Clasp Press. Ennis. Dutton, H. 1808 Statistical survey of the county of Clare, with observations on the means of improvement, etc. Dublin. Graisberry and Campbell. Breen, M. and Ua Cróinín, R. 1997 Some north-west Clare towerhouses. The Other Clare 21, 5-14.