Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

On a rise in rolling grassland overlooking bogland to N and E. According to OS Letters (O'Flanagan 1927, Vol. 1, 103), this castle 'belonged to the O'Kellys of Hy-Many'. It is depicted by Grose (1791, Vol. 1, 64) as a roughly square tower, about four storeys high, with a notable base batter. Access was via a pointed arch doorway centrally placed in one side-wall. His ground plan shows a spiral stairs to the right of the doorway and a number of chambers on the ground floor. The doorway was surmounted by a double machicolation at parapet level and a second machicolation is also visible on an adjoining side-wall. The windows shown comprised narrow slits and a number of small round-headed examples. Only fragmentary sections of N (L 8.7m) and W (L 6m) walls now survive at NW corner. Otherwise grassed-over foundation lines indicate the outline of a rectangular building (L 12m, Wth 8m). Apart from a possible window embrasure or wall cupboard in W wall, no architectural features survive. Surrounding the castle are traces of an enclosure defined by a low earthen bank from W to N. It may have been originally circular (D c. 70m) but no visible surface trace survives elsewhere. Adjacent to the castle is an irregular series of grassed-over stone walls, mounds and hollows.

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Galway Vol. II - North Galway'. Compiled by Olive Alcock, Kathy de hÓra and Paul Gosling (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1999).

Date of upload: 05 August 2010