Castle - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

In flat open pastureland. This poorly preserved rectangular castle (ext. dims. 10.3m E-W; 7.2m N-S; wall T 1m), which is heavily overgrown with ivy, is at least two storeys high. The S and W walls are the best preserved walls; most of the W half of the N wall and the N end of the E wall are gone. No trace of the doorway survives. The remains of a centrally located splayed slit window are visible in the S wall and traces of opes at 1st-floor level in the frayed NE end of the N wall and centrally in the S wall may also be the remains of windows. A wall recess is visible at ground-floor level in the N end of the W wall. The interior is subdivided by a later wall which blocks the slit window in the S wall. Traces of possible angle towers (max. H 0.5m) are visible at the NE (>3.85m N-S; 2.9m N-S) and SW (c. 2.9m N-S; c. 2.1m E-W) corners, however, that at the SW corner is not bonded into the castle wall. An ope in the SW corner of the castle wall may mark a doorway that accessed it. The tower at the NE corner is less clear but it is noticeable that its S extent coincides with the frayed N end of the E wall of the castle. It is recorded that ‘Cloughmeel (recté Cloghmweel) was once a convent’ (O'Flanagan 1972a, Vol. 1, 481). The castle may have subsequently been used as a residence by nuns. (OSNB Parish of Claregalway, 17)

Compiled by: Galway Archaeological Survey, UCG

Date of upload: 29 January 2020

References

O'Flanagan, Rev. M. (Compiler) 1927 Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of the county of Galway collected during the progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1839. Typescript in 3 vols. Bray.

OSNB - Ordnance Survey Name Books. Pro-forma books arranged by Civil Parish for recording townland and other name-forms and compiled in the course of the OS 6-inch survey 1824-1841. The name books also include minor names and incidental references to antiquities. National Archives of Ireland.