Castle - tower house

The National Monuments Service's description

On a slight hummock in level pastureland; it formerly stood on the shore of W arm of a shallow lake called Lough Rusheens (now drained). In existence in 1574 when it was in the possession of 'Vllig McRichard' (Nolan 1901b, 118). The ruins comprise the tumbled walls of a rectangular tower (L 8.4m, Wth c. 4.8m) of at least two storeys. Only the lower sections of E, and adjoining sections of N and S walls are still in situ, but sufficient remains to indicate that there was a vault between ground/1st floor. Possible traces of steps in SE corner hint that the doorway may have been in S wall. The only surviving architectural features are an aumbry and an enigmatic diagonal chute-like ope in N wall on ground floor. The castle stood in NW part of a large roughly quadrangular bawn, the foundations and some sections of the walls (H 3m) of which are still visible. The original entrance (Wth 5.3m) appears to have been in NW corner immediately N of the castle. An earthwork (GA043-071----), which is reputed to have played a part in its destruction, lies 250m to W (Nolan 1901a, 36; O'Flanagan 1927, Vol. 1, 131)

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